A ‘UNREPENTED’ man has been jailed for breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order after he deleted messages.

Andrew Gibbs appeared at Preston Crown Court after admitting four counts of breaching the terms of his SHPO which was imposed in September 2020.

Prosecutor Ellie McManus said Gibbs deleted messages forming part of his internet history with women on the Zangi Private Messenger app between October 14 and October 16 this year.

The court heard the 36-year-old, of NFA, was trying to get in touch with women who had young children and teenagers.

Ms McManus said officers first became aware of the defendant’s offending in Barrow when they received information on October 16 this year that he had assessed an unknown application and messaged a woman who said she was divorced with two kids.

The chat was based around an image of an adult female with a pre-pubescent child in a swimming costume, Ms McManus told the court.

Officers arrested the defendant for breaching the terms of his SHPO and seized his mobile phone whereby upon further examination they uncovered four separate chats with deleted messages, the court was told.

Ms McManus said Gibbs told officers in police interview the child in the swimming costume had been sent to him by ‘a female’.

The court heard Gibbs conceded to police: ‘I might have deleted a message or two because of spelling mistakes’.

He also admitted to travelling to Liverpool to meet up with a female who did not show, the court was told.

However, the Crown was unable to charge Gibbs with any additional offences as the conversations were not present on the device history.

His barrister Niamh Ingham said her client’s best point in mitigation was his ‘timely guilty plea’.

She said: “He is not charged with deleting messages to cover his tracks. They were individual messages deleted – not the whole of these conversations.

“The defendant has struggled with his mental health since 2008. He is currently using his time in custody wisely and is on the road to rehabilitation.”

The court heard Gibbs had an antecedent record consisting of 18 previous convictions for 25 offences.

His Honour Judge Guy Mathieson jailed Gibbs for two years and extended the SHPO to last until September 2030.

Before passing sentence, he told Gibbs: “The SHPO was explained to you at length of what you could and could not do. You understood the seriousness of such a breach because you were previously imprisoned for two years. You knew the reasons why the prohibitions were there.

“The concern is you are covering your traces and destroying the trail of evidence that leads to further offending.

“It is clear to me you are unrepented about your offending and you still get significant enjoyment about it getting in touch with women with young children and messaging teens hoping and intending to meet up with someone.

“I say you are unrepented because there are people who are unable to deal with their demons or unwilling. It seems you are unwilling; you enjoy it too much and do not want to change.”