Convicted sex offender avoids jail after talking to teenagers via PlayStation  

  • A sex offender has been given a two-year community order at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after using a fake name to contact a schoolboy on the PlayStation 
  • The offender breached a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) by giving his number to the teenager after they met playing Grand Theft Auto 
  • The offender has a long list of convictions relating to child sexual  abuse  
  • The 53-year-old was only caught after an adult overheard their conversation and did a Google search 
  • The offender also failed to notify Staffordshire Police of an alias he was using 
  • Prosecutor Antony Longworth said the defendant began playing Grand Theft Auto with 25 people, and then contacted one of the group, who was a schoolboy 
  • For the full story, select here 

                 

                Virgin Media see record downloads on day of Call of Duty: Warzone Update  

                • Virgin Media says it recorded the “biggest download day on record” with the release of the latest Call of Duty update 
                • The average user downloaded more than 20GB (gigabytes) on 25 February 
                • Call of Duty: Warzone is known in the industry for its huge download sizes, and the update in question clocked in at up to 26.5 GB for some users 
                • BT also said that day was immensely busy, but not quite a record on its network 
                • For the full story, select here 

                A dangerous sex offender explains his possession of bestiality images in court  

                        • A serial sex offender has explained in court that he watched videos of bestiality as it was “something different” and was an attempt to stop him looking at child sex abuse, a court heard on Wednesday 
                        • The man has previous convictions relating to abusing a young girl, possession of child sex abuse imagery and conspiring to impregnate a stranger so he could sexually abuse the baby 
                        • The man is on the sex offenders register for life 
                        • He hoarded a collection of bestiality and child sex abuse images on a phone which he successfully hid from Police and social workers in his local area, but a cleaner found it and handed it over to police, leading to this court hearing 
                        • For the full story, select here 

                         

                        Bullying legislation will come into power in Northern Ireland in September 

                        • New bullying legislation is set to come into operation in schools in Northern Ireland this September. 
                        • Education Minister Peter Weir made the announcement on Wednesday and said we “all have a part to play in creating a society and an education system in which bullying behaviour is always challenged” 
                        • The legislation will provide a legal definition of bullying; introduce a requirement for schools to record all incidents of bullying, and require Boards of Governors to take direct responsibility for developing and monitoring the effectiveness of Anti-Bullying policy and practice within schools 
                        • It will come into operation in Northern Ireland on September 1, 2021 
                        • For the full story, select here