In January 2026, the Offender Database reported that Phillip Smith, then 52, of Dennis Avenue, Beeston, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court to two-and-a-half years in prison. Smith, a repeat sexual predator, was caught in an online sting operation targeting what he believed were three vulnerable young girls.
The court heard that Smith used Facebook to message three “girls” who identified themselves as being aged 13, 14, and 14. During the interactions, Smith sent sexualized messages and requested explicit photographs from the children. Unbeknownst to him, the profiles were managed by an online child safety group that was monitoring his predatory behaviour. Smith was eventually confronted by members of the group in Beeston, an encounter that was filmed and subsequently shared with Nottinghamshire Police as evidence.
At the time of his arrest, Smith was already subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) following previous convictions for similar sexual offences. His actions represented a blatant breach of the court-ordered restrictions intended to prevent him from accessing social media to contact children. The prosecution characterised Smith as a persistent risk to the community who had demonstrated a complete disregard for previous legal interventions.
On Wednesday, 7 January 2026, Phillip Smith was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
As a result of his repeat offending, Smith remains a registered sex offender for life. He is managed under the highest level of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in Nottinghamshire. This framework ensures that Nottinghamshire Police and the National Probation Service maintain intensive monitoring of his internet usage and residency. His SHPO has been updated with even stricter conditions to include the mandatory installation of police monitoring software on any digital device he accesses upon his eventual release.
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