Pervert who tried to lure teenage girls into performing sex acts for him online and kept indecent images of children.

Convicted Sex Offender Jailed for Online Sex Offences

A convicted sex offender has been returned to prison after attempting to engage children in sexual activity online while under a court order.

Alan Morris, formerly of Poundhurst Lane, Ruckinge near Ashford, sent sexualised messages – including images of himself – to someone he believed to be a child via an internet chat site in February 2024. Morris stated he was 65 in his messages and also sent videos of sexual material to his online recipient.

Prevention Order

The conversations were in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which had been issued to Morris in 2018 after he was found guilty of previous offences. The court order forbade him from accessing the internet without informing the authorities, using devices without specific monitoring software on them and a range of other online activities.

Investigation

Following an investigation by Kent Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), Morris was arrested on 8 February 2024. Further examination of his mobile phone uncovered indecent images of children, as well as recent sexual communication.

Morris was charged later that day and pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, two counts of making indecent images of a child and distributing an indecent image of a child. He further admitted attempting to cause a girl to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to look at sexual activity, and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child - relating to offences also uncovered by POLIT, when Morris believed he was communicating with a child in October 2023.

Jailed

On Monday 1 July, Morris was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to six years in prison, including a year's imprisonment for breach of an SHPO, with four years to serve on licence upon his release.