A PAEDOPHILE from Andover who breached his sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) by speaking to a 13-year-old boy on a dating app has been sent to Crown Court for sentencing next month.

Callum Lee Bates, from Andover, pleaded guilty to the charge on November 5.

Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard today (December 7) that conversation took place between Bates and a boy who stated he was thirteen years old on the dating app Grindr - an app, it was noted, that requires users to confirm they are 18 years or older.

Bates told the boy: “I have to be careful mate, due to the fact that you are under the age of consent.”

He then went on to suggest they meet “as friends.”

He wrote: “I am happy to meet and talk mate, as friends, but anything sexual is not recommended.”

The court heard that the conversations took place between September 8 and 11 2019, and that the idea of meeting was mentioned, which breached the order, but that it did not go any further.

Judge Tim Pattinson said: “My initial view is that this should be properly sentenced in the Crown Court. It seems desirable that the court that made the initial order should have some say in the sentence.”

Bates was banned from having contact with a child by Winchester Crown Court in April 2018 after being snared by paedophile hunters.

The 21-year-old, who was 18 at the time, tried to meet a nine-year-old boy at a train station, only for it to be hunters who had posed as someone named 'Dillon'.

He persuaded the decoy to travel for 'full sex' and wore a police uniform to the meeting to impress him.

Bates’ solicitor, Jane Joslin, told the court today that the “practical point” of a suggestion by police that a second Sexual Harm Prevention Order be made against Bates, also meant it might be “more pertinent to send this case to Crown Court to be dealt with.”

Judge Pattinson committed the case for sentencing to Winchester Crown Court on January 8 2021.

He said: “I am committing it to Crown Court, partly due to the practical reasons, and partly due to the unlimited sentencing powers, because this court’s sentencing powers may well not be sufficient in this case.”

Bates was given unconditional bail ahead of the sentencing.