Stewart Alderton (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
Last Updated: 3 minutes ago
A 44-year-old man who was previously given a suspended sentence for sending a sexual video to what he believed was a 12-year-old girl has been locked up for persistently breaching the conditions placed on him to monitor his online behaviour.
Stewart James Kevin Alderton, formerly of Wylcwm Place, Knighton, Powys, but now of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court after admitting one breach of the sex offenders register and 11 breaches of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
The original offence
Alderton received a suspended prison sentence at Mold Crown Court in November 2021 after he sent a video of himself masturbating to someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl. The account turned out to be a decoy. The sentence came with a sexual harm prevention order requiring him to register all phones and mobile devices with police and make them available for inspection at any time.
Repeated breaches
Prosecutor Caitlin Brazel told the court that throughout 2025, a pattern of non-compliance emerged during home visits carried out by police officers and offender managers.
On one occasion, Alderton denied owning a phone – but when officers checked his internet router, they discovered a Samsung device was connected. The phone was found concealed beneath his pillow.
Other breaches included deleting WhatsApp conversations with women, removing TikTok posts, wiping internet browser histories, restoring a phone to its factory settings, possessing an unnotified bank card, keeping unregistered phones, and installing then deleting apps including Snapchat.
Found in Lincolnshire
Some of the offending was uncovered after Alderton was reported missing. He was later located by police in Lincolnshire when officers there spotted his vehicle, which had been flagged on police systems.
Mental health and personal circumstances
Defence barrister Georgia Donohue told the court her client had worked for bottled water company Radnor Hills for eight years, and said the firm had continued to support him following his 2021 conviction. However, Alderton experienced what she described as “extreme” mental health difficulties in 2025, leading him to stop attending work and subsequently lose his accommodation. He ended up living on the streets, where he suffered frostbite that resulted in the amputation of three toes.
Ms Donohue said Alderton accepts “he is not in a position to manage in the community”, adding that this showed “a level of insight into the difficulties he faces”.
Sentencing
Judge Huw Rees noted that Alderton had experienced mental health difficulties since his teenage years, and that his condition had begun to deteriorate during the summer of 2025. The judge acknowledged that the defendant appeared to want to be in custody at the present time, and said that in all the circumstances only a custodial sentence was “warranted and viable”.
Alderton was sentenced to 22 months in prison, with credit given for his guilty pleas. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
He has two previous convictions for three offences – the 2021 conviction which gave rise to the SHPO, and a breach of the same suspended sentence in 2022.
