A convicted sex offender who lured a child into his car was jailed after a lie detector test revealed he had broken a court order.
For the past 18 months, Andrew Chaplin has been in prison waiting for his case to come to court, having admitted breaking a Sexual Harm Prevention Order in December 2024.
The order was made against Chaplin in 2020, when he was jailed for four years after attempting to meet a 14-year-old boy in Christchurch Park for sex, following weeks of grooming on WhatsApp and the dating app Grindr.
In fact, Chaplin had been chatting to an undercover police officer.
Three years previously, Chaplin had been jailed for breaching another sexual offence prevention order and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
On that occasion, he lured a 13-year-old boy into a car after exchanging messages on Facebook.
In December 2024, a public protection officer who managed “high-risk” offenders such as Chaplin received information that he had failed a polygraph test (commonly known as a lie detector test) when asked by the probation service about deleting his internet history. Chaplin was forbidden to do so by the sexual offence order in place.
While Chaplin readily admitted having done so when questioned at his Ipswich home, it took until April for the police to send a requisition notice bringing the case to court. Meanwhile, Chaplin has spent this time behind bars.
Speaking for Chaplin, David Allan told Suffolk Magistrates’ Court this delay as “unfair”.
He explained there was no suggestion Chaplin had sought to conceal sexual material. Instead, he had been viewing articles published about his offending history by the East Anglian Daily Times.
Chaplin was upset by these, and the comments left by the public, and had deleted his history afterwards.
In light of the fact that Chaplin had spent a significant amount on remand, the presiding magistrates sentenced him to one day in custody.
They waived the costs of the hearing.
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