A young paedophile who used Facebook to groom his teen victims has escaped jail for the THIRD time – after a judge said it would better protect the public.
Callum Evans posed as girls on the social networking site to encourage boys to send him naked photos before meeting up with two lads aged 14 to molest them.
But a judge allowed him to walk free from court in 2011, when he was aged just 19, and did not ban him from Facebook.
In 2013 the troubled teen was hauled before the court once more after it was revealed he had logged back on to find more victims within weeks of his sentence.
Despite the despicable offences Evans was yet again allowed to walk free so he could complete a sexual offenders programme.
Evans, 21, was finally sentenced for his crimes – but was only handed a three year community order.
Sentencing him Judge Hume Jones said: “You must understand that these offences are serious in themselves.
“The public are concerned that their young people should not be affected by the activities of people like yourself on the computer or on these social networks.
“I am very concerned that the public should be protected for that sort of behaviour.
“Any prison sentence I pass would only lock you up and protect the public from you for a very limited length of time.
“I am concerned to take the best steps possible to ensure you are kept under supervision for as long as possible.”
He was also handed a five month curfew from 7pm to 7am as well as made the subject of a sexual offenders prevention order indefinitely.
He was placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
Bristol Crown Court heard how following his court appearance in 2011 Evans created a new alias and tried once more to groom young boys and one girl.
He again posed as a teenage girl to trick them into sending pornographic photos of themselves. He was found in possession of 657 sexually explicit images of children.
During his appearance in July he admitted a whopping 40 offences – 19 of making indecent images of children, four charges of sexual activity with a child and 12 of causing or inciting a child to take part in pornography.
Six more offences, which he denies, were allowed to lie on file. He also admitted breaching his sex offenders’ prevention order on three occasions.
Patrick Mason, mitigating, said Evans, from Queen Camel, near Yeovil, Somerset, said he was a “much-changed young man”.
“The order made in July was with great foresight and has worked. There have been no further offences and this man is very much on the path to full rehabilitation.”
