Wolverhampton pervert jailed after breaching court order

Steven Murphy, of Moorland Avenue, Oxley, had already been placed on the sex offenders register after admitting the offence.

But he was handed a harsher sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday for failing to comply with his community order.

Murphy, aged 22, had previously admitted a charge of inciting a child into sexual activity.

The court heard how Murphy had set up a fake Facebook account as 'Andre Johnson', aged 17 to 18, and sent a friend request to a 14-year-old girl.

He managed to get hold of an indecent image of the girl through a contact and then blackmailed her into sending more.

The court heard Murphy was eventually stopped when she reported the matter to her teacher, who then informed the police in February last year. Police later found material linking him with the Andre Johnson character, which he had tried to delete from his computer, and images of the girl saved in a folder.

Murphy pleaded guilty and was ordered on to a sex offenders work programme as well as being told to carry out 200 hours unpaid work on October 1. He was also made the subject of a three-year supervision order because of previous convictions.

But he went on to breach those conditions and was remanded in custody after being arrested last week. Judge James Burbidge, sentencing on Thursday, said: "You clearly have an interest in pre-pubescent girls, which you should not have.

"You set up a false Facebook page pretending to be Andre Johnson and managed to get hold of compromising photos of this girl, which she did not want people to see.

"You made her send images of herself, which was pretty much blackmail. You were very lucky not to get charged with that at the time.

"Your breach report makes for sad reading and I have no other alternative but to revoke this order.

"The offence was already so serious it passed the custodial threshold because of the degree of planning and the disparity between the ages."

Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said Murphy had failed to comply with the order after struggling to fit in his unpaid work with his new employment. He said: "He managed to find employment, which he was told was the biggest hurdle standing between him and rehabilitation.

"He started working 16 hours a week but often that would become 30 to 40 hours. He began putting his work in front of the order but he did make an effort to contact the probation service."