A convicted paedophile from Ramsey has admitted breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Matthew John George Williams was jailed for three years and three months in September 2021 after admitting an indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl, as well as being involved in importing more than £60,000 worth of cannabis to the island.

He was also put on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

Williams, who is 21 and lives at May Hill, breached that order on September 23 last year, when he deleted a Snapchat account he held, which meant that police did not have access to all his data.

Prosecuting advocate Hazel Carroon told the court that the defendant’s SOPO runs until September 2031.

It prohibited him from using social media unless he informed his supervising probation officer and gave them access.

Williams had sought permission to use social media and this was granted.

However, on September 26 last year, a complaint was received which led to his mobile phone being examined.

This showed that he had deleted Snapchat from the device, so there was no longer any evidence of any messages.

Ms Carroon said that this had been the first breach, and the case was therefore suitable for summary court sentencing.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood said that Snapchat had banned his client, which meant that he didn’t have access to his conversations anymore, so he had deleted it.

Mr Wood said, in summary, that there had been no deliberate hiding of conversations, but in deleting Snapchat, his client had prevented the police from having all the data they might have access to.

The advocate asked for a probation report to be prepared before sentencing.

Magistrates accepted summary court jurisdiction and adjourned sentencing until July 4.