Alan Burton, a 71-year-old convicted paedophile from Blackburn, Lancashire, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court for breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) imposed following his previous conviction for attempted sexual communications with a child.
In December 2023, Burton had been jailed for three years and nine months after he engaged in online conversations with a so-called 'paedophile hunter', whom he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. As part of that sentence, a 15-year SHPO was imposed to restrict his access to certain online activities and devices that could facilitate contact with children. Burton was released from prison on 27 October 2024.
Just four days later, on 1 November 2024, officers from the Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) unit visited Burton's home. They examined two mobile phones in his possession and discovered that he had downloaded TikTok, WhatsApp, DuckDuckGo, and NordVPN across the devices, all of which violated the terms of his SHPO. The DuckDuckGo app, a secure search engine, had 75 tabs open, many of which were chatrooms including 'Girls Chat', 'Girls Free Teen Chat', and 'Kids Main Chat'. Burton had sent messages in these chatrooms and also a direct message to an account named Alex15.
Upon his arrest, Burton told officers: 'I was monitoring the site. I was lonely and just wanted to chat with someone.' Prosecuting, Abigail Holmes outlined the breaches at Preston Crown Court. In mitigation, Madeleine de Ferrer argued that Burton was in a 'very difficult mental headspace' at the time but accepted he should not have done it. She noted that Burton claimed the apps were downloaded by his stepson, though he maintained his guilty pleas and took responsibility for the six charges of breaching the SHPO.
Judge Paul Hodgkinson, sentencing Burton, remarked: 'Those 45 months you served for the offence in 2023, you had been out of prison for a total of four days. You must have immediately downloaded, or arranged to be downloaded, apps that you knew you were not entitled to do. You engaged in conversation with young girls, which I find to be a continuation of your sexual interest in young girls. I do not need to have the details of those conversations, but a 71-year-old man with the record you have, communicating with girls under 16, is worrying. I consider that does pose a risk of very serious harm.' Burton was sentenced to three years in prison, with the existing SHPO to continue until 2038.
The case was reported by the Lancashire Telegraph, based on court proceedings at Preston Crown Court, with involvement from Lancashire Police's MOSOVO unit.