A PEMBROKESHIRE man has been sent to prison after admitting breaching a sexual harm prevention order by having internet-wiping software on his phone and an email account in a false name.

Convicted sex offender Anthony Stephen Joshua Coombes, of Colley Court, Monkton, was been handed down a suspended sentence last year after being convicted of engaging in sexually explicit conversations with what he believed were underage girls, possessing indecent images of a child, and failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements.

The 22-year-old had also been made subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

On February 4 this year police went to Coombes’ home and inspected his mobile phone.

Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that police noticed it only had that day's internet history in the browser history.

Further examination found that the Huawei phone had an app with a data-erasing function.

Coombes had also created an email account in the name of ‘Bennypern’.

The SHPO forbade him from erasing his browsing history and from setting up email accounts in a different name.

In police interview Coombes said that he had made the alias email address for use on his X-Box games console.

He said that he was not aware of the direction regarding deleting his internet history, and that he had bought his phone second hand with the cleaning app on it.

Coombes had previously admitted breaching the conditions of the SHPO when he appeared for sentencing at Swansea Crown Court.

The court heard that in October 2021 Coombes had been sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.

The offences he was convicted of included contacting what he believed were two girls aged 12 and 14, engaging in sexual conversations and asking for intimate photographs.

The profiles were in fact decoy accounts being run by a so-called paedophile hunter group.

The woman running one of the accounts contacted the police after she learnt Coombes had been befriending young girls on Facebook.

When he was arrested officers found two indecent images of girls ages between eight and 12 on his phone Coombes admitted these offences in August last year but failed to register with police pre-sentence which, as a sex offender, he was required to do.

The court heard that Coombes also had a conditional caution from 2017 - when he was a juvenile - for attempting to incite a child to engage in a penetrative sexual activity and sending indecent images.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said it was clear to him that Coombes had no intention of complying with requirements of the SHPO.

The judge sentenced him to eight months in prison for breaching the order and activated 10 months of the suspended sentence, making an total prison sentence of 18 months.

The SHPO will remain in place.