A SEX offender has been given ‘one last chance’ after he was caught downloading Snapchat in attempts to speak to children.

Andrew Sims, of Wincanton Road, Reading, avoided jail after his sentencing hearing on Wednesday (August 9) after breaching a community order put in place in July last year.

Sims was convicted of four breaches of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) after officers caught him trying to delete the disappearing messaging app off his phone in November.

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The defendant was not allowed to access any social media or chat sites without ‘relevant permission’ as well as being prohibited from deleting his search and chat history.

However, Judge Emma Nott at Reading Crown Court decided to give the 37-year-old ‘one last chance’ due to his low IQ.

Instead, he was handed another community order to last for three years.

The court heard that on November 18, 2022, officers attended Sims’s home address for a check-up and found the defendant was ‘being evasive and acting suspicious’.

They followed him upstairs and found him doing ‘something’ in the hallway on his phone.

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At first, Sims continued to be evasive until he eventually admitted he had downloaded TikTok, a short video platform, but stated he wasn’t using the messaging aspect of it.

However, officers found messages on the app referencing a Snapchat account and a text message with account verification for the app.

When asked, he admitted he had deleted the account the previous evening but it was found he had used it that morning.

Police discovered he had sent pictures of his penis on the app but he denied sending any other explicit messages.

It was also found Sims had another phone but police were in fact aware of it.

The four breaches of the SHPO were: Accessing Snapchat without approval, deleting Snapchat messages on both phones and deleting the app from both phones were considered two counts.

In mitigation, the court heard that Sims has ‘cognitive learning difficulties’ making the case a difficult one’ as he has not been able to access specialised programmes to help with his ‘unique situation’.

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Judge Nott took this into consideration when she ordered Sims to also complete 40 rehabilitation days and 43 days in a specialist programme.

She said: “If there were 100 people in this room, 99 would understand better than you. Don’t come here again because if you do you will be going to prison.