Teesside pervert bought iPhone to groom sexual victim

Kaden Hand moved to Teesside after serving his sentence in his native North West for sickening child sex offences after being locked up in January 2020.

The 23-year-old was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of engaging in sexual communications with a child and being found guilty of one count of child abduction and four counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was released from custody partway through his sentence but was returned to prison for breaching the conditions of his sexual harm prevention order.

Teesside crown Court heard how he moved to Middlesbrough when he had served his sentence but started reoffending almost immediately.

Nigel Soppitt, prosecuting, said Hand bought the mobile phone when he arrived in Middlesbrough and set about downloading a number of apps to start messaging people.

Police visited his home to check on his electronic devices and called one of them. The defendant claimed it was a broken Nokia but it turned out to be a new iPhone he hadn’t declared to the authorities.

“The phone was looked at and there were various social media accounts such as Snapchat and Instagram on the phone,” he said.

“There were 530 chats, bearing in mind it is a few days since his release, containing 7,536 messages. There were numerous messages to females, some of who he told them he loved, and there were messages to a 15-year-old.

“When she showed no interest in him, he sent her messages to her that he had just lost his grandmother and was self-harming. Clearly targeting vulnerable people.”

Kaden Hand (Image: Cleveland Police)

Hand, of Percy Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to three charges of breaching his sexual harm prevention order on July 3 this year.

Jon Harley, mitigating, said: “The facts of the case speak for themselves and it is an understandably concerning course of behaviour so soon after his release from prison.”

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Judge Jonathan Carroll sentenced Hand to two years in prison for attempting to groom young children for his own sexual needs and ignoring the contents of SHPO.

He said: “You knowingly and willing tried to sidestep all of the protection and within a short space of time, you had 530 separate chats going and at least one of which was with a 15-year-old female.

“When she was not interested in you, you engaged in what can only be described as emotional blackmail.

“This was clearly seeking to target and manipulate an underage female and I can only conclude that this part and parcel of the early stages of attempting to groom a future sexual victim.”