Scarborough paedophile handed suspended sentence after breaching court order

Roy Dove, 53, had been made subject to a sexual-harm prevention order and police notification requirements following his conviction for sexual activity with a child and downloading indecent images of children in 2014.

But he repeatedly breached the order by using pseudonyms on email addresses and changing the user name on his Facebook account from Roy Dove to ‘Roy of England’, in contravention of the notification rules, York Crown Court heard.

Dove, of Victoria Road, Scarborough, appeared in court on Wednesday when he admitted four breaches of the order in May 2017, when a police officer seized three of his mobile phones for analysis.

As well as the suspect email names, officers found that Dove had changed the name on his Facebook account to ”Roy of England” or “Roy from England”, said prosecutor Lydia Carroll.

She said Dove had breached the order on previous occasions following his 2014 conviction and another in 2015 for possessing and making indecent photos of children.

Dove, who is unemployed, was in breach again as recently as April this year when he was found in possession of digital storage and recording equipment which were proscribed under the terms of his order. For that offence, he was sentenced to a nominal eight-week prison term in August.

Defence counsel for Dove appealed for a conditional discharge rather than a custodial sentence as his client had already spent 16 weeks on remand following his latest breach.

But judge Andrew Stubbs QC imposed a four-week suspended prison sentence to mark the four breaches because of the amount of time Dove had already spent on custodial remand, which meant it would be “unjust to send you to prison now”.

The period of suspension will last for 12 months.