Child sex offences man sent back to jail

Jane Hunt

A FORMER musical director with a majorette group who was jailed for three years for downloading child porn and child sex offences has been sent back to prison after breaching a court order.

David Hinton-Smith, 39, appeared before Ipswich Crown Court in 2005 and admitted two offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four offences of making indecent images of children and eight offences of possessing indecent images of children with intent to distribute them to others.

He was jailed for a total of three years and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his contact with children under 16.

He was brought back to court yesterday after forming a relationship with a mother of four young children in April during which time he had frequently visited her home and on one occasion had stayed overnight.

Hinton-Smith, of Love Road, Lowestoft, admitted breaching the SOPO and was jailed for eight months. The court heard that Hinton-Smith had been in breach of his early prison release licence by staying with his girlfriend overnight and had been returned to prison with his earliest release date being June next year.

In addition to jailing Hinton-Smith, Judge Peter Fenn varied the terms of the existing SOPO by ordering him not to stay overnight in a house where children under 16 were present, except members of his own family, unless their parent or guardian was at the address and they were aware of his previous sexual convictions.

Georgina Gibbs, prosecuting, said that on several occasions when Hinton-Smith visited his girlfriend's house earlier this year her children had been present. She said there was no suggestion that Hinton-Smith had done anything other than engage in general chit-chat with the children and she said that on one occasion a child had asked him to take them to the toilet and he had declined.

She said the breach of the SOPO came to light when the defendant's ex-wife sent his girlfriend an e-mail informing her that Hinton-Smith had been in trouble with the police.

Hinton-Smith later told police that he had intended to tell his girlfriend about his previous convictions but had been waiting until he knew her better.

Matthew McNiff, for Hinton-Smith, said nothing improper had taken place with his girlfriend's children and he had declined to be alone with them. “He just exchanged pleasantries with them and during the majority of the visits the children were in bed,” he said.

He asked the court to amend the current SOPO to make the terms clearer and described his client's breach of the order as “technical and low level”.