A convicted Skelton Paedophile, Jake Cresswell,who disseminated several illicit photographs of youngsters being sexually exploited, has asserted that he should be permitted to utilise online dating platforms, since he disputes the internet limitations imposed upon him.
In 2021, a judge called Jake Cresswell “devious and manipulative” before sentencing him to imprisonment again. The 25-year-old was determined to pose a “high risk of harm to children” after engaging in online conversations with other paedophiles, during which he articulated his distorted fantasies of meeting, abusing, and even being “seduced by” youngsters.
Following Jake Cresswell’s release from jail last year, he was apprehended for violating the stringent terms regarding his phone and internet usage. Teesside Crown Court was informed that Jake Cresswell’s offender management visited him in August 2022 and discovered that he had been utilising an alias on the application Discord.
Jake Cresswell called himself “LotusBear” and had also used an email account with an alias to open his Discord account. But the court heard that Jake Cresswell feels he should be able to use online dating – his barrister said he relies on it to meet people.
“Given his offender status, he struggles to meet people in public,” Lewis Kerr, mitigating, said. “He is more inclined to use online dating apps.”
He added that his client used alias, when he is prohibited from doing so, “to stop him being identified as a sex offender in what is a public arena.” The court heard that Jake Cresswell “doesn’t agree” with his online restrictions.
Police also contacted his employer – Peppino’s Pizza on Skelton High Street – after receiving intelligence that Jake Cresswell was using a “concealed device.” His employer provided police with the phone number they had for Cresswell – who had told police that he didn’t have a mobile phone.
His licence conditions state that he has to declare all devices to his offender manager. A forensic examination of the phone found that he had deleted 386 items from his internet history – which is a breach of his internet rules.
When police searched Jake Cresswell’s home on The Hills in Skelton, they found his secret mobile phone on the roof and some cannabis in his bedroom. Lewis Kerr told the court that Jake Cresswell’s job delivery pizza, “is not particularly likely to bring him into contact with young people.”
“He hasn’t committed any contact offences – this is not an escalation in his offending,” Mr Kerr added. Jake Cresswell admitted four breaches of his sexual harm prevention order; and the possession of cannabis.
Jake Cresswell was recalled to prison after his latest breach, to complete his last sentence, which ends on October 16. Creswell was jailed for two-years in March 2018 for sending horrific child abuse images to fellow paedophiles online.
The pictures depicted girls, mainly aged four to seven but as young as three months old in one case, with a collection of almost five hours’ worth of videos. He said children characters in anime started his interest when he was 15 to 16.
Jake Cresswell claimed he was “initially repulsed” by the material, “but the more he looked at it, the less guilty he felt”. In 2019 he breached his order after confessing to deleting the Grindr, Tinder and Bumble dating apps.
By March 2020, his offender manager found messages which “indicated” that he had been in an online relationship. Illegal porn and 258 items from his internet history had been deleted from his phone.
On Tuesday, Judge Howard Crowson told him that the internet conditions, “are there to manage the risks you pose to children.” The judge told him that his current spell in prison is being extended, as he imposed a three-year jail term, which will run concurrently to the sentence he was recalled to serve.
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