Brecon man to be sentenced for social media accounts
A BRECON man will be sentenced next month after admitting several charges in relation to breaching the terms of sexual offences court sentence he received eight years ago.
James Ward, 27, was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in September 2017, when he was 19.
Ward, of Dol Glas, Brecon, was charged with 12 breaches of that order earlier this year.
It is alleged that Ward either held social media accounts with apps such as Tinder, Match.com, Snapchat, Tiktok and YouTube using a different name and then deleted his profiles – both of which he was barred from doing by the SHPO – between September 2, 2022, and August 8, 2023.
At Merthyr Crown Court on Friday, June 13, prosecutor Alycia Carpanini said Ward had previously pleaded guilty to four of the charges, entering not guilty pleas to eight others.
She said the prosecution was satisfied with the defendant's guilty pleas and formally offered no evidence in relation to the other eight charges.
Ross McQuillan-Johnson, Ward's barrister, was tied up in another hearing so Judge Richard Kember asked the defendant if he wanted to proceed or have the matter adjourned, to which Ward said: 'I want to save everyone's time and get on with it.'
Judge Kember said Ward will be sentenced on the four offences he has admitted and adjourned the case so that a pre-sentence report can be carried out.
He will return to court to be sentenced on July 17. His unconditional bail was extended, but the judge added a condition, to cooperate with the probation service in the preparation of a report.
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