Concern at number of sex offenders repeating crime after earlier being spared jail

More than 1,400 sex crimes in the past five years were committed by people who were spared a jail sentence for their first offence, figures show.

Data from the Ministry of Justice show that rape, sexual assault and child sex crimes have all been carried out by convicted sex offenders who escaped a non-custodial sentence when they were first caught.

Statistics issued by the MoJ under Freedom of Information laws show that in the past five years there were 1,407 sex offences dealt with by the courts where the offender had previously avoided a jail sentence when they were first caught for a sex crime.

In the past year, there were 349 of these offenders – the highest tally since 2018 – including 30 who were then brought before the courts to be sentenced for rape and another 80 for sexual assaults on women.

A total of 143 of these people ended up being convicted for child sex offences, seven for voyeurism and 73 for indecent exposure.

Among the offences these people were eventually convicted of – despite having previously been given a non-custodial sentence for their earlier sex offending – were 67 people who were convicted of grooming type offences, and eight who physically met up with a child after grooming them.

The MoJ figures also show the first offences these repeat offenders were convicted of that did not lead to them being jailed.

In the last year, this group of offenders included three people who had previously escaped jail for rape, 152 who had sexually assaulted women and eight who had been found guilty of peeping Tom offences.

‘I am appalled’

Kevin Moore, a retired detective chief superintendent and former head of Sussex Police CID, said: “My major concern is the fact that it is well known that it is highly likely that offenders convicted of sexual offences lower down the scale will go on to commit more serious offences subsequently.

“This likelihood will undoubtedly increase if they perceive that they ‘got away with it’ first time around. There is no ‘cure’ for sex offenders, however, intervention can sometimes break their cycle of offending and this will only occur if they are in custody while this takes place.

“Frankly, as a retired senior detective, I am appalled that these levels of reoffending are apparently going on unabated. How many more victims do there have to be before action to stop this takes place?”

In the tally of 1,407 crimes committed by these second chance offenders, it may be that some criminals may have been registered more than once if they committed multiple crimes after first getting a non-custodial sentence.

Rhys Miller-Offiong was given a suspended sentence in 2017 for grooming a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity. Three months later, he raped a woman.

‘Judges carefully consider facts’

Woolwich Crown Court heard how the 24-year-old who was eventually jailed for 15 years created fake social media profiles to lure females into sending him explicit photographs so he could blackmail them into performing sex acts.

In another case, Kevin Hollingshead was spared jail for persuading children to play strip Twister and for downloading hundreds of extreme images in 2014. It was claimed in court that sending him to prison would prevent him being rehabilitated.

But within two years, he was locked up for inciting a 13-year-old girl into sexual activity and distributing indecent images.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Sentencing decisions are made by independent judges after careful consideration of the facts before them.

“Judges can impose a range of tough requirements on offenders given suspended sentences. Sex offenders on suspended sentences will also be subject to strict sex offender registration requirements.”