Medway sex offender jailed for breaching court order

A Medway resident who breached his sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) has been jailed.

Ben Champion was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court in 2020 of making indecent images of children, and was made subject of a court order that placed strict conditions on his behaviour indefinitely.

These included restrictions preventing any unsupervised contact with children, notifying the police if he stayed at a new address for more than seven days and retaining his internet history for inspection by officers.

Breaches

On 18 April 2024, constables attended Champion’s registered home and found he had been residing at a different property.

Their enquiries also found he had been in contact with children and had deleted some of the internet history on his phone.

Champion, of Old Road, Chatham, was arrested and charged with multiple breaches of his sexual harm prevention order between March and April.

Jailed

He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court and, on Tuesday 17 September, the 31-year-old was jailed for two years and eight months.

Investigating officer, PC Areolito Gashi, said:

‘We regularly visit registered sex offenders living in our communities to monitor their conduct and ensure they are complying with any court conditions that are in place to prevent further crimes. In this case, once we found Champion had not been staying at his address, we swiftly tracked him down and discovered he had breached further restrictions on his conduct.
‘In this way, we endeavour to protect the most vulnerable in our community and, where any breaches are discovered, they will be arrested and brought back before the court to answer for their actions.’