JAMES CARPENTER

KEIGHLEY CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER IS A 'RISK TO THE PUBLIC'

A CONVICTED sex offender who breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order by accessing the internet anonymously has been jailed.

James Carpenter, 56, of Hainworth Lane, Keighley, was previously handed a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, as well as the 10-year SHPO after he accessed indecent images of children.

Carpenter, who said he felt he was “not normal and accepted by others”, is now beginning a two-year prison sentence after a judge determined he was a risk to the public.

Bradford Crown Court heard how, during a random check, a police officer who visited Carpenter’s home discovered an unregistered mobile phone.

Carpenter, who cleans and maintains portable buildings, claimed he needed the phone “for work purposes”.

However, analysis of the phone showed that he had accessed the internet anonymously.

Carpenter pleaded guilty to three breaches of the SHPO.

In mitigation, the court heard that Carpenter had suffered significant abuse during his childhood, which had a lasting impact on his mental health.

The breaches, in March and September 2024, happened around the time of the death of his mother, which was “an emotional tipping point”.

Carpenter was said to have expressed suicidal thoughts and “feels he is not normal and accepted by others”.

Recorder Mr Tony Watkin stated, “There is no good reason that someone would need to anonymise their identity and access the internet in such a way that they would conceal what they had been looking at for work purposes when your work is that of somebody who cleans portable cabins on a construction site.

Do you present a risk to the public?

In my assessment, you do.” He handed Carpenter 12 months imprisonment concurrent on all counts and activated the full 12-month suspended sentence order, to run consecutively, to make the total jail time two years.

Carpenter’s SHPO runs until January 16, 2033.

Carpenter is already a registered sex offender.