Sex Offender Jailed for Disabling Phone Monitoring Software

A Flintshire man has been sentenced to two years in prison after deliberately disabling monitoring software on his phone, breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) made just weeks earlier.

Phillip Davies, 55, of Hawarden Road, Caergwrle, appeared at Mold Crown Court on Thursday after being found guilty of breaching the order, which was imposed in February 2024 following convictions for attempting to cause a child to engage in a sexual act and attempted sexual communication with a child.

The court heard that Davies had tampered with mandatory monitoring software on his mobile phone, which tracks images, words and device activity. When confronted about notifications from dating sites that didn’t appear in his browsing history, Davies falsely claimed “the app still switches itself off” and that he’d “had to turn it back on manually.” 👨‍⚖️

“You were given a suspended sentence for serious sexual offences involving what you believed were young children. Within two months of being given that opportunity, you were deliberately breaching your SHPO,” Judge Niclas Parry told Davies during sentencing.

Despite claims of “near-exemplary” compliance with other community requirements, Davies received 12 months concurrent for each breach offence, plus 12 months of his activated suspended sentence, to run consecutively.