Falmouth sex fiend claims he breached court order to play Football Manager
A man who tricked a vulnerable male teenager into performing sex acts on him has been recalled to prison after breaching a court order stopping him from using certain apps on his phone which he said he deleted so he could play Football Manager. In November 2020, Jamie Tonkin, 26, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to three charges of causing a person with a mental disorder to engage in sexual activity.
Tonkin, of High Street in Falmouth, had been out on parole for 13 months and was said to have been engaging well with his probation officers when he was found to have installed and uninstalled certain apps on his smartphone. These included social media apps such as Telegram and Instagram, and he had been using the forum website Reddit under a different name to his own.
In April this year he pleaded guilty to three beaches of the sexual harm prevention order imposed on him back in 2020 and was recalled to prison to complete his five-year jail term.
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When he appeared before Truro Crown Court via video link for sentencing on Friday (May 10), Hollie Gilbery, prosecuting, said the offences had come about when his probation officer had noticed some discrepancy in his browser's history and his smartphone was examined by police. She said the installation and uninstallation of certain apps and social media had deleted the history which Tonkin was prevented from doing by the order.
She also told the court that Tonkin was also banned from using pseudonyms online which he had done when using Reddit. Christopher Spencer, defending, said Tonkin had admitted the breaches at the earliest opportunity but had not quite realised what the terms of the sexual harm prevention order entailed.
He added: "He used to play Football Manager on his phone when he was on his way to meet with his probation supervisors. The game required a certain capacity on his phone which is why he was installing and uninstalling applications.
"The motivation being that is that his phone had limited storage capacity and he was just playing on that game and was deleting apps to make space for it. He was not doing anything he was not supposed to do on these apps. He didn't fully understand the implications of the order made against him."
His Honour Judge Robert Linford sentenced Tonkin to 12 months in prison for the three breaches which will run concurrent with the remainder of his original prison sentence due to end in July 2025.