A ‘DANGEROUS’ Carlisle sex offender has been recalled to prison after he illegally acquired a mobile phone and set up a Snapchat account without telling the police.

Joshua Watson, 24, who was last year sentenced for downloading dozens of indecent child images, is also awaiting sentence for an offence which involved him buying alcohol for teenage girls and making sexual suggestions to them.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate court, Watson, formerly of Beaumont Road, Carlisle, admitted two breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.

Prosecutor Andy Travis said that the defendant is a registered sex offender, having on May 6 last year been convicted at the city’s crown court of downloading indecent images of children and put on the Sex Offender Register for a decade.

He was also given a sexual harm prevention order, which obliges him to register all his internet enabled devices with the police within three days of acquiring them.

His devices must also be fitted with police monitoring software and be capable of displaying internet history.

On January 29, said Mr Travis, police attended the defendant’s Carlisle home and found him in bed, with a mobile phone on the bed next to him.

“He said he’d acquired the device the previous day and was going to notify the police the next day,” said Mr Travis. “He said his granddad had bought it for him.”

But when police examined the phone, it was immediately apparent that Watson acquired the phone much earlier than he said. Watson claimed he had simply forgotten to tell police about the phone.

Mr Travis continued: “Further examination of the phone revealed evidence of a Snapchat account created by Watson.” The defendant had used the phone to message people on Snapchat, Facebook and Tinder, the court heard.

The blamed his failure to tell the police about the phone on “stress” linked to his parents’ splitting up and the death of his dog. Mr Travis also referred to an offence committed at a holiday in park in Scotland, when the defendant spoke to 16-year-old and 17-year-old girls.

“He bought them alcohol and made suggestions to them of a sexual nature,” said Mr Travis. The defendant has yet to be sentenced for those offences.

The prosecutor added: “The police take the view that he’s a dangerous offender and obviously these are serious offences, committed very shortly after he was released; he has now been recalled to prison.”

Defence lawyer Lauren Heasley accepted that Watson is now facing a custodial sentence.

District Judge John Temperley said his sentencing powers were not sufficient and sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court for a sentencing hearing on February 27.

In the meantime, Watson will remain remanded in custody.