Thatcham sex pest Phillip Allum is back in court

A SEX pest who obscenely propositioned a woman via an online market place has been sentenced for his latest offence.

It was not the first time Phillip Allum had bombarded an unsuspecting woman with sexual messaging – he was sentenced for an almost identical offence in 2020.

At a previous court hearing in September, the 39-year-old, of Rosedale Gardens, Thatcham, admitted his latest offending.

He pleaded guilty to harassing his victim in Thatcham between Saturday, January 13, and Sunday, February 4, by sending repeated, unwanted messages of a sexually explicit nature via Facebook Marketplace.

Allum had been fined for his first offence but this time magistrates ordered pre-sentence reports to be prepared on an ‘all options’ basis, including custody.

However, at his latest sentencing hearing on Wednesday, October 23, Allum walked away with a community penalty.

Wahab Mohammed, prosecuting, said his new victim had wanted to sell furniture online via Facebook Marketplace.

The court heard she received a message from a user named ‘Phil Allum’ asking if a particular item was still available.

She replied that it was – and her ordeal began.

Mr Mohammed said the victim was shocked to receive a message stating: “You’re too sexy to ignore – I’d love to satisfy you.”

She was then bombarded with sexually explicit messages asking her intimate questions and propositioning her sexually.

The woman blocked her tormentor, the court heard.

But soon she started receiving messages via Facebook Messenger from a ‘Phil Jenks’ asking if the item was for sale and, when she replied it was, the process repeated itself.

She called police and the messages were traced to Allum.

The complainant said, in a victim impact statement read to the court: “I’ve been left feeling very scared and frightened; I’m in fear because I believe he lives locally.

“I just wanted to sell these items and instead, without warning, received these sexually explicit messages.”

Some of the messages were sexually aggressive, she added, rendering her too frightened to sell items online.

The court heard Allum has two previous convictions.

One of them, from 2020, involved Allum making unwanted telephone calls and unwanted sexual messages.

On that occasion he was fined £200 and ordered to pay £85 costs, plus a statutory victim services surcharge of £32.

In addition, he was made subject to a 12-month restraining order preventing him from contacting the woman, either directly or indirectly.

At the latest sentencing hearing, Allum told magistrates: “I’m truly, truly sorry this ever happened.

“I’ve been ashamed and feel sorry [for the victim]; I should never have done it to her.

“I never meant to cause her harm or stress.”

He added: “I’ve hurt my family – I’m just so sorry and it will never happen again.”

After reading the pre-sentence reports prepared by a probation officer, prepared on an ‘all options’ basis as requested, magistrates made Allum subject to a 12-month community order and required to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work.

In addition, he was ordered to pay £84 costs, plus a statutory victim services surcharge of £114.

Next, Allum was ordered to pay his latest victim £250 compensation.

Finally, the court made a restraining order preventing him from contacting her, either directly or indirectly, for two years.