A PAEDOPHILE'S sentencing date has been postponed after he was charged for another gun-related crime.
Callum Bates, 25, from Andover, was due to be sentenced on Wednesday, July 24, at Winchester Crown Court after having pleaded guilty to soliciting indecent images from a child.
However, he has now been charged with a "prohibited firearms offence", a court heard, prompting Judge Adam Feest KC to postpone the sentencing date to August 19.
Lisa Bowles, prosecuting, and Lucy Conroy, mitigating, had no objections to the postponement of the sentencing date.
READ MORE: Callum Bates breaches sexual harm prevention order again
As previously reported, Bates is charged with making unauthorised contact with persons via the messaging tool Discord.
Discord is an instant messaging and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) social platform.
On Discord, users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".
SEE MORE: Andover paedophile Bates pleads guilty to breaching order
Bates was first given a five-year SHPO in April 2018, and he was prohibited from unsupervised contact with any male child under the age of 16.
However, he breached this order in 2020 and was later given a three-year community order in February 2021.
This latest incident happened on Sunday, January 14, this year, after Bates changed his username on the same platform.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article