Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
13
Apr
Harrogate man who attempted sexual communication with child changes plea to guilty
A Harrogate man who originally denied a string of sex offences has changed his pleas.
David North, 38, appeared at York Magistrates Court last Thursday (April 9) after denying nine offences last month: seven counts of breaching a sexual risk order or interim sexual risk order, one count of being an adult attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and one count of harassment without violence.
His trial was due to start that day, but in a U-turn, North changed his pleas to guilty.
The prosecution, however, offered no evidence in relation to three of the breaching a sexual risk order charges, meaning North was convicted of a total of six offences.
According to court documents, North intentionally attempted to have a sexualised conversation with a person whom he did not believe to be over the age of 16 for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification on June 19, 2024.
North, who is listed as no fixed abode but from Harrogate, admitted to harassing a named woman between February 15 and March 2 this year, during which he sent her “unwanted online communications”.
Court documents add the defendant also repeatedly breached a sexual risk order imposed on September 5 last year.
The exact conditions of the order are not disclosed in court documents, but the charges against North all say he behaved in a sexual manner towards various women, which was deemed "unwanted, aggressive or intimidating, including words or actions, which [he was] prohibited from doing by a sexual risk order".
The breaches all happened last month and all occurred in the Harrogate area.
The case was sent to York Crown Court, where North will be sentenced on April 30.
He was remanded in custody until then.
0