'High risk' sex offender jailed for using alias

A SEX offender has been jailed after breaching an order designed to protect the public.

- By NAOMI CORRIGAN

Zoe Hardy admitted three offences of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by using an alias on the internet - prohibited under conditions set by a court in 2022.

Hardy appeared on the court list as Luke Hardy but identifies as Zoe Hardy and was referred to using female pronouns during the sentencing hearing.

Teesside Crown Court heard the 24-year-old had breached the same five-year order twice in 2023 and at that time received suspended prison sentences.

The SHPO was imposed after Hardy made 36 indecent images of children, of which eight were in the worst category.

Jailing Hardy for nine months on Wednesday for the latest breaches, the judge branded the offending “persistent and quite obviously deliberate”.