A notorious Harrogate man has been jailed after engaging in sordid sex chats with someone “purported” to be a teenage girl and pestering women in the town.

David North, 38, harangued female shop staff in the town and engaged in online sex chats with someone he believed to be a young girl, even making arrangements to meet her, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Jennifer Gatland said that police seized a laptop from North’s home in January last year on which they found “sexually explicit” messages he had sent to a female purported to be 15 years of age between May and June 2024.

North, a cannabis user who was in a relationship at the time, told the girl he wanted to meet her and urged her “to bring various outfits including a school uniform”.

The girl sent him her post code and North sent her a photo of his private parts, then asked her for sexual pictures of herself.

In February this year, he sent sexualised messages and video reels to a woman on Instagram. This was in breach of a Sexual Risk Order (SRO) to which North was subject.

He then tried to initiate sexual conversations with another woman by sending her similar online messages.

A sexual risk order is issued by police when an individual poses a risk of committing sexual offences.

North’s two-year sexual-risk order was imposed by York Magistrates’ Court in August last year and included six conditions including a prohibition from acting in a sexual or intimidatory manner towards females.

In March this year, he went to a well-known retail store in Harrogate where he harassed two female staff members, telling one of them: “You are really gorgeous; you are really hot”.

He said to the other victim: “I’m coming here more often.”

The two women felt “extremely uncomfortable” by the unwanted attention, said Ms Gatland.

North was arrested for those breaches of the sexual-risk order, but three days later he returned to the store and leaned over the counter where one of the women was working “to get a closer look at her”, telling her: “I’m just admiring the beauty.”

Ms Gatland said:

When questioned by police about the offences, North tried to pass his behaviour off as “forward behaviour and confidence” and told officers that the women who had made the complaints “ought to be slapped for the allegations they have made”.

North - formerly of Ashfield Terrace, Harrogate, but currently of no fixed address - was charged with attempted sexual communication with a child, harassing one of the women and four breaches of the sexual-risk order.

He ultimately admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence yesterday (September 22) after being remanded in custody.

‘His behaviour constantly haunts me’

In a statement read out by the prosecution, one of the women who North had messaged said:

The second adult victim who had been messaged by North said that his behaviour had had a “huge impact” on her and that her life had since “completely changed”.

She now felt “incredibly anxious” and said that North’s behaviour “constantly haunts me”.

North had eight previous offences on his record including drug-driving, possessing cannabis and fraudulent use of a registration mark. His rap sheet also included battering a former partner and criminal damage.

His solicitor David Camidge said that North, who had been working for a company in Harrogate, was so addled by drugs at the time of the offences that he was “unable to recall many of these events” and he was now taking medication for serious mental-health issues.

A psychiatric report noted that North could be suffering from schizophrenia.

Judge Sean Morris said that North had simply been “taking too much cannabis”.

He told the Harrogate man: 

North was jailed for two years and eight months and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.

He was made subject to a 10-year sexual-harm-prevention order including curbs on his internet use.