A sex offender subject to lifetime notification requirements has denied nine alleged breaches of the court order.
David Spencer was made subject of sex offender registration for life when he was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court for seven years for sexual offences with girls, in February 2013.
The now 35-year-old offender, formerly of Fencehouses, near Houghton-le-Spring, but whose most recent address was given as care/of a charity-run men’s hostel, in Plawsworth, near Chester-le-Street, appeared at Durham Crown Court by video link from the city’s nearby prison for a plea hearing.
He is charged with failing to comply with the terms of his notification requirements, eight of the alleged offences said to have taken place between July 18 and October 12, this year, and one in September last year.
It is alleged he failed to inform police of user names used to register for various social media and gaming apps and accounts, including TikTok, Discord, Instagram, email, as well as for a bank account, many of them using the moniker ‘daveh’ or ‘davidhunter’.
Spencer denied all nine offences, but his counsel, Chris Baker, said he accepted owning all the user names, but claimed he told police about most of them, although he denied having a Discord or Gamer account.
Judge James Adkin said it would need evidence from police monitoring officers who have dealt with Spencer to see if that was the case.
The hearing was adjourned with a trial date pencilled in for March 16, next year, until when Spencer was remanded to remain in custody in the meantime.
