Sex offender who used fake Covid test pic to avoid rehab session is jailed
A sex offender who used an internet image of a positive Covid test to avoid rehab sessions has been jailed.
Rui Moreira, 46, from Burford, in Brookside, Telford, admitted three separate charges when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Recorder Anthony Warner was told Moreira, originally from Portugal, had pleaded guilty to one breach of a suspended sentence order, and two charges of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
The offences put him in breach of a 12-month prison sentence, which had been suspended for two years, that he had received on February 15, 2021.
The order was a result of him admitting two charges – one of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child, and one of attempting to cause a child under 13 to watch a sexual act.
Charles Crinion, prosecuting, said the background to those offences started in 2018 when he sent a message to a profile on a social media platform.
The profile, with a picture of a teenage girl named 'Becky 19', was in fact operated by a woman from the paedophile sting group called 'Protect the Innocent'.
The court heard that Moreira had initiated contact with the message "talk to me sexy".
In response he was told that the profile belonged to a 12-year-old from Shropshire.
Mr Crinion said that contact had ceased but the following year Moreira had again messaged the profile – asking how old the girl was, and again being told she was 12 and was "too young for him".
As their conversation continued he asked her to send him naked pictures and offered to give his address to her so they could have sex.
As part of his initial sentence Moreira was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and was required to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
Recorder Warner was told that the defendant had not attended three appointments required as part of the suspended sentence.
The first, in June 2020 saw him telling officials he had Covid and providing a photo of a positive test.
But, it was later found that the image he had sent was a picture from the internet.
He missed another appointment because he said he missed a bus but could not provide satisfactory evidence.
Mr Crinion explained Moreira had breached the terms of his SHPO by being found to have deleted a dating app called Badoo from his phone, as well as WhatsApp conversations with a person by the name of Ilina.
The court was told that analysis of his phone did not show any illegal conversations, but Moreira accepted the terms of his SHPO prevented him from deleting them.
Sentencing Recorder Warner jailed Moreira for eight months for the breach of his suspended sentence, and also sentenced him to another eight months for breaching the SHPO – making a total of 16 months.
