James Harbertson, a man with many convictions for child sex offences, has been incarcerated once more for transmitting “abhorrent” communications to a 15-year-old girl.
James Harbertson, 34, previously sentenced to nine years for child sexual abuse, utilised the alias GeordieBoyJames when attempting to solicit girls for sexual acts online in 2022, as presented in Newcastle Crown Court.
Following his 32-month incarceration for charges involving four girls aged 14 and 15, police discovered SnapChat conversations to a 15-year-old on a mobile phone, prompting James Harbertson’s return to court.
James Harbertson, currently homeless, confessed to attempting to initiate sexual communications with a minor and violating a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) established in June 2013, resulting in an additional four-month imprisonment.
‘Dangerous’ offender
Judge Tim Gittins said James Harbertson had an “appalling record for being interested sexually in children”.
James Harbertson’s first offence was in 2012 when he was given a community order for possessing indecent images of children.
The following year, he was deemed a “dangerous” offender and jailed for nine years for multiple counts of sexually abusing a child, for which he was also made subject of a SOPO for an indefinite period of time.
That order banned James Harbertson from having any contact with a child under 16 or deleting any logs of his internet activity.
In 2022, police seized a number of phones and found he had been messaging several girls between April and August who were “clearly under the age of 16” on SnapChat, which was a breach of his SOPO.
He had also deleted multiple SnapChat messages, which was another breach, and he was jailed for 32 months.
While he was incarcerated at HMP Durham, police found a further illegal chat James Harbertson had had with a 15-year-old girl in June 2022, in which he said he wanted to perform sex acts on her.
Judge Gittins said the girl had never been identified but she “could have a been very vulnerable young girl” and the chat was “abhorrent”.
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