Ashley Coldwell, aged 36, of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, is scheduled to be released from prison custody on 8 October, serving less than three months behind bars after being handed a 12-month custodial sentence in July.
Coldwell appeared before Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Tuesday, 21 July, where he entered guilty pleas to two counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
The preventative court order had been imposed following Coldwell’s prior conviction for engaging in sexual communication with a child.
In that case, Coldwell targeted an online decoy persona whom he believed to be a 14-year-old schoolboy.
During the interaction, Coldwell engaged in illicit grooming behaviour, fantasising about the decoy being in school and requesting images of the boy’s feet.
The resulting conviction placed Coldwell on the Sex Offenders Register and made him subject to a five-year SHPO, which included mandatory conditions requiring him to register all internet-enabled devices with police and prohibiting the use of unmonitored hardware.
In June, police officers attended Coldwell’s address to carry out a routine, unannounced monitoring visit to verify compliance with his statutory restrictions.
During the inspection, Coldwell conceded to officers that he was in possession of internet-capable devices that had never been declared to the police, in direct violation of the order.
Officers conducted a search of the premises and seized multiple pieces of electronic equipment.
At his sentencing hearing on 21 July, the Crown Court judge handed Coldwell a 12-month custodial term.
Release Calculation: Under UK determinate sentencing provisions, standard 12-month terms carry statutory release mechanisms. With credit for time served on remand alongside applicable early release frameworks, Coldwell will serve less than three months in prison custody. He is scheduled for release on licence on 8 October to serve the balance of his sentence under the supervision of the Probation Service, subject to strict licence conditions alongside his ongoing five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
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