September 2020

Jarrow serial sex offender jailed after breaching ban by communicating with girl in USA

A serial sex offender is behind bars for having secret cross-Atlantic conversations with a 15-year-old.

Colin Lowrie is banned from having contact with children as a result of his long criminal history of sexual offending.

But when police attended his home and seized his phone in August, they found a record of a conversation the 26-year-old had been having with a schoolgirl in America.

Prosecutor Philip Morley told Newcastle Crown Court the illegal chat had taken place on an app and Lowrie, who was out on licence from prison, had used the profile name “Colin Lowrie 666”.

He said: “He had engaged in chat with another user of that app. The user had a profile picture of a young teenage female.

“During the course of the conversations this person confirmed they were 15 years of age on three occasions.

“The defendant continued to chat to her and suggested that the female should use Whatsapp.”

He said the conversations that followed were “generally benign” but at one point Morley had said “stay safe babe” and put three kisses at the end.

Lowrie also asked “if she liked older guys” and then asked if she would “date him”.

The court heard the teen replied: “I don’t know you and I’m 15 and you are 26. My parents would kill me.”

Mr Morley said the risk management officer had seized the phone because Lowrie gave “inconsistent accounts” about his internet activities when questioned during the visit.

Lowrie, of St. Paul’s Road, Jarrow, admitted breach of a sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements by not disclosing his address to the police as instructed.

The court heard his previous convictions include sexual assaults, outraging public decency and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

His recent conversations with the teen, in Kentucky, USA, were his fourth breach of the sexual harm prevention order, which was imposed last year and lasts for a decade.

Judge Robert Spragg sentenced Lowrie to 16 months and said: “You present a risk to the public”.

The judge told him: “Only the good sense of the girl involved meant this didn’t escalate further.”

May 2019

Serial pervert behind bars after sex chat with undercover cop posing as 13-year-old girl

A serial pervert is back behind bars after telling a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl that he wanted to have sex with her in an undercover sting.

Sex offender Colin Lowrie has convictions for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, sending pictures of his penis to a 15-year-old girl and having sex in a public park while a children’s treasure hunt was taking place nearby.

But that didn’t stop the 25-year-old contacting who he thought was a teenage girl on a dating website in January this year.

In fact the 13-year-old girl was an undercover police officer.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that ‘from the outset’ the officer informed Lowrie that ‘she’ was only 13.

He replied that she didn’t look that age, and asked her about her favourite food and sports before asking if she had a boyfriend, and suggesting that he could be her boyfriend.

Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said: “She said her mother would be unhappy and he replied that they could keep it a secret.

“The defendant had contact with the profile on three separate days.

“The initial conversations were general but became sexual, despite her reminding him she was 13.”

The court heard Lowrie, of Commercial Road, South Shields, began including kisses in his messages and sending photos, asking ‘do you think I look hot?’.

Mr Wardlaw said Lowrie asked the fake profile what they would do if he visited her home, told her she was a ‘naughty girl’ and that he had been dreaming about them being in bed together.

He told the court: “He suggested having fun and when asked what he meant, replied ‘sex’.”

The defendant also asked the ‘girl’ what she had done with boys and when she said she had never had sex, he told her ‘bet you would want it to happen with me’.

But he added that “it would have to be when she was 16 as he ‘wasn’t getting done for sex with a minor’”.

Lowrie also discussed how he would avoid getting her pregnant.

The court heard that at the time of the offence Lowrie was the subject of a sexual harm prevention order imposed in 2017 when he contacted a 15-year-old girl through social media and persuaded her to send him pictures of her breasts, while he sent her pictures of his penis.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and acting in breach of a sexual harm prevention order.

Judge Robert Adams sentenced him to 20 months behind bars, with a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and 10 years on the sex offenders’ register.