David Mills

David Mills, a 45-year-old man previously convicted of attempted sexual communication with a child, appeared at Durham Crown Court for sentencing after admitting four breaches of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and one count of failing to comply with his notification requirements as a sex offender.

The SHPO had been imposed following his April 2022 conviction for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child online. This order restricted his internet usage and prohibited the use of aliases without prior approval from his offender risk manager. As part of the conditions, monitoring software was installed on his devices to track compliance.

On 5 January 2024, police visited Mills' home in Newton Aycliffe after discovering that he had used the Telegram messaging platform to chat with an adult female without informing his risk manager. Investigations revealed that he had deleted his internet history to conceal the activity and had accessed the site using the alias 'Durham Man', in direct violation of the SHPO terms.

During his arrest interview, Mills provided 'no comment' responses to police questions. However, the following day in magistrates' court, he made full admissions to the breaches. Kathryn Wetherley, prosecuting, informed the court that there was no evidence suggesting Mills had attempted to contact children in this instance.

In mitigation, defence barrister Charlie Thompson highlighted Mills' health issues, including a stroke suffered in 2015 that had caused memory problems. Thompson explained that Mills struggled with recalling details of the SHPO prohibitions and had mistakenly believed the 'Durham Man' alias was previously approved from an earlier offence. He noted that Mills had risk management software on his phone but often forgot complex rules, and had been advised to use home reminders for appointments and obligations. Thompson also mentioned Mills' high blood pressure and concerns about its recurrence in custody.

Presiding Judge Nathan Adams described the decision as a 'stark choice' between immediate custody or a non-custodial option. Opting for the latter, he imposed a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 21 months, including a 26-session programme requirement and 20 rehabilitation activity days supervised by the Probation Service. The judge emphasised that the SHPO and sex offender registration requirements remained in full effect.

Prior to this, Mills had served a 20-month prison sentence for the original 2022 offence and three subsequent SHPO breaches, marking a pattern of non-compliance in his record of three convictions for eight offences.