A convicted sex offender is back in prison after he tried to engage children in sexual activity online while he was the subject of a court order.
Alan Morris, formerly of Poundhurst Lane, Ruckinge near Ashford, sent sexualised messages – including images of himself – to someone whom he believed to be a child via an internet chat site in February 2024. Morris stated that he was 65 in his messages and also sent videos of sexual material to his online recipient.
The conversations were in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which had been issued to Morris in 2018 after he was found guilty of previous offences. The court order forbade him from accessing the internet without informing the authorities, using devices without specific monitoring software on them and a range of other online activities.
Following an investigation by Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), Morris was arrested on 8 February 2024 – when further examination of his mobile phone uncovered indecent images of children, as well as recent sexual communication. He was charged later the same day.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, two counts of making indecent images of a child and distributing an indecent image of a child. He further admitted attempting to cause a girl to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to look at sexual activity, and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child – relating to offences also uncovered by POLIT, when Morris believed he was communicating with a child in October 2023.
On Monday 1 July, Morris was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to six years in prison – including a year’s imprisonment for breach of an SHPO – with four years to serve on licence upon his release.
Detective Constable Barbara Zamorska, of POLIT, said:
‘The reason we push for Sexual Harm Prevention Orders to be put in place is so that children in Britain and around the world can be protected from abuse by predators such as Alan Morris.
‘Morris had nothing but contempt for the court order that was imposed on him and persisted in attempting to lure teenage girls online into committing sexual acts.
‘I hope the sentence he has received serves as a reminder that our investigators will hunt down offenders who would use the internet in an attempt to carry out their vile crimes and strive to bring them to justice.’