Mark Owen (Image: Gwent Police)
Last Updated: 4 minutes ago
A convicted child sexual offender who was freed from a lengthy prison sentence has been locked up again after breaching the conditions designed to protect children – just days after his release.
Mark Owen, 57, of Cinderhill Street, Monmouth, was sentenced to 27 months in prison at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
Previous offending
Owen has eight previous convictions for 16 offences. These include the sexual assault of a child in 2006 and engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child in 2009.
In 2017 he was sentenced to nine and a half years at Swansea Crown Court for causing or inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. That case involved Owen contacting a 14-year-old girl through social media, grooming her, and telling her he wanted to marry her and have babies with her. The pair subsequently met at Machynlleth railway station.
The sentencing judge in that case called Owen “highly predatory”.
Owen served the full nine-and-a-half-year term before being released on October 23 last year. He was made subject to an indefinite SHPO as part of the 2017 sentence, which prohibited him from having social media apps.
Concerns raised
Following his release, Owen met with his offender manager as required. However, the offender manager became concerned about apps found on Owen’s phone, including Snapchat, TikTok, Telegram, Signal, and Facebook.
The phone was seized and examined. Officers discovered Owen had been making regular use of the apps in the week since his release from prison, as well as visiting dating websites including Smooth.com.
Owen was arrested for breaching his SHPO. In interview he denied the offence but said he may have “accidentally” accessed TikTok.
Defence arguments
Jeff Jones, for Owen, told the court his client had been given a second-hand phone by a relative after his release on October 23. He said Owen had shown the phone to police on October 27, who examined it and returned it to him, before looking at it again on October 31 and seizing it.
The barrister said the offending covered a period of four days and that there was no evidence on the phone that Owen had been seeking contact with under-18s.
Sentencing
Recorder Greg Bull KC said the evidence showed the apps on Owen’s phone had been used multiple times but “nobody will ever know” what he viewed or read. He said he was satisfied Owen had deliberately breached his sexual harm prevention order.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea, Owen was sentenced to 27 months in prison. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
