August 2020

Convicted sex offender back behind bars for communicating with children on Snapchat

A convicted child rapist is back behind bars after communicating with youngsters on Snapchat.

Callum Hewitt, who goes by various aliases, including Christopher Bartley, was locked up for five years in 2006 for sex attacks when he was 15 on a younger girl and boy.

He was later made subject to a sexual harm prevention order, which he has breached a number of times.

When Wright was arrested for an unrelated matter in February, police checked his phone.

The fact he had downloaded Snapchat – which deletes messages after they have been read – was a breach of the court order in itself.

But further examination of his phone also revealed he had been communicating with a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, which was also prohibited without their parents consenting and having knowledge of his previous offending.

Now the 29-year-old has been locked up for two years at Newcastle Crown Court.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said it was on February 11 that Hewitt’s latest offending came to light.

The girl said she had been in contact with him – who she knew as Chrissy – for a couple of months.

She denied receiving any sexual images from him or meeting him but said he was often complimentary and called her beautiful.

The 13-year-old boy said “Chrissy’s” Snapchat name was “lizard man” but denied meeting him.

The court heard a number of Hewitt’s previous breaches of the sexual harm prevention order and his sex offender registration requirements relate to him starting relationships with women who have children, some of whom he met on dating website Plenty of Fish. He used a number of different names.

He pleaded guilty to three breaches of the sexual harm prevention order, relating to his contact with the two children and his use of Snapchat.

Hewitt, of Barmpton Lane, Darlington, County Durham, was jailed for two years. He remains subject to the sexual harm prevention order until 2025 and has to register as a sex offender for life.