A prolific sex offender has been jailed amid fears his criminal behaviour has escalated.

At the Court of General Gaol, Deemster Graeme Cook raised concerns over the fact Thomas James Hall had previously been charged with public order offences and provoking behaviour for crimes which were clearly sexual in nature.

Hall, care of Isle of Man Prison, previously received a caution and two fines for offences relating to carrying out sexual acts in front of females – including once on a bus and another time in front of female colleagues.

As he was not charged with a sexual offence, he did not receive any sexual harm prevention order which allowed his offending to escalate.

Hall, 31, appeared for sentencing on Thursday after admitting three counts of gross indecency with a child, indecent assault and sexual grooming, along with eight counts of making indecent photographs of a child.

He was jailed for a total of two years and ten months.

After raising concerns over how Hall’s previous sexual offending had been treated as public order offences, Deemster Cook said: ‘If ever there was a person displaying an increase in their criminality, this is it.

‘The police need to be told about charging him with public order offences when he did it again and again. He should have been charged with a sexual offence previously.’

Deemster Cook did point out that under the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Act introduced in March this year, Hall would have been charged differently for his earlier offences.

The court heard that police attended Hall’s address in Douglas on January 25, 2023 in due to an unrelated matter and was arrested. A phone and iPad were seized. Forensic analysis found 41 indecent images.

Under the Copine scale, which measures the severity of images from one to five with five being the most severe, 41 images were found on the iPad with five at level four, 13 at level three, nine at level 2 and 14 at level one. There were no level five images discovered.

On the phone, eight level one indecent images and two level four images were found. Another phone was also seized during a later search with six further indecent images at lower levels.

Hall was arrested but denied downloading the images, claiming they were second hand devices with the images already downloaded. But this was later found to be false and Hall eventually admitted eight charges of making indecent photos of children.

Despite being on bail for this offence, Hall went on to commit more serious offences.

On March 7 this year, he contacted a girl under the age of 16 on Snapchat where he claimed to be 18 years old.

After speaking for a week, he told the girl he would supply her with vapes and alcohol in exchange for sexual favours.

On March 15, the schoolgirl and her friend went to Hall’s flat. The victim asked if her friend could come in too but Hall said no and locked the door after the victim went in.

He told her to take off her skirt which she did reluctantly and then he gave her the alcohol and vapes. After that, he induced the girl to carry out a sex act on him.

A week later, the girl went to the police and explained what had happened and Hall was arrested. Despite initially denying even knowing the girl, the victim and her friend picked him out in an identity parade. Hall later admitted to the offences.

In a victim impact statement read out at court, the girl said: ‘I find it hard to think about what happened to me. He (Hall) is a nasty person who manipulated me.

‘I thought it was normal at the time but now I know it’s not. I was a vulnerable child and he took advantage of me.

‘I thought it was my fault because I went there willingly, and I thought the police would think it was my fault too. The start of the investigation was scary for me.

‘A am now extremely suspicious of males over 30 and I have had to grow up early. He has taken away my innocence. What he did was disgusting and it will affect me all my life.’

The victim’s mum also provided an impact statement in which she said she was proud of her daughter for speaking up.

She added: ‘I feel awful for my daughter and so angry someone has done this to her. She will have to live with this all her life but all we can do is support her and be there for her.’

Defence advocate Paul Glover told the court Hall had a low IQ and learning difficulties although he conceded this did not excuse his behaviour.

He argued his client needed help to deal with his issues and struggled in prison. Mr Glover argued a suspended sentence with a supervision order would be more beneficial.

But Deemster Cook disagreed saying: ‘This is somebody who clearly has problems but he knew what he was doing was wrong and had awareness.

Hall was handed a 28-month prison sentence for the sexual offences against the girl and a further six months for making the indecent photos. There will also be a three-year extension to his licence on release.

A hearing in relation to issuing a sexual offences prevention order will take place on December 6.