A HARLOW woman has been sent to prison for almost a year after specialist officers established she had breached the terms of being on the sex offenders’ register.

Forty-seven year-old Sarah Lodge, of no fixed address, had been place on the sex offenders’ register in 2022 when she was convicted of sexually assaulting a man.

As a result, until 2030 she is subject to a number of requirements including that if she changes her address she must notify us within three days.

Officers from our Integrated Offender Management (IOM) team, one of our teams which manages offenders and mitigates the risk to the public that pose when in the community, visited the address

Lodge was meant to be staying at in December last year and January this year.

On both occasions, there were no signs that anyone had stayed there and the landlord of the property confirmed they did not believe she was staying there.

She was arrested last month and charged with two counts of failing to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offenders’ register.

At Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on 5 March she was sentenced to 48 weeks in prison.

Katie Saville, from our Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Officers (MOSOVO) team, said:

“This case highlights the importance of the work we do to monitor, manage, and mitigate the risk posed by offenders when they are in the community.

“When someone is placed on the sex offenders’ register they are made subject to strict notification requirements to allow police, probation, and other partners manage any potential risk to the public and to reduce the chance of reoffending.

“When someone breaches those terms we deal with them robustly, and I don’t think the public would expect anything less.

“As this sentence shows, offences such as these are taken very seriously.

“It’s just another way we’re able to protect the public.”