March 2016

Convicted sex offender banned from contact with girls

A CONVICTED sex offender has been banned by a court from having unsupervised contact with girls.

John Youatt, aged 68, was allegedly caught in a car with an 11-year-old female in breach of a previous court order.

Prosecutors said he was banned from contacting boys but admitted that the document was ambiguous about girls.

Youatt, who has been on remand for a month, appeared at Plymouth Crown Court from Exeter Prison via videolink.

The defendant, of Coltishall Close, Ernesettle, denied breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order between November 2013 and last month.

He was allegedly in company of the girl in a private vehicle without her parents.

The indefinite order was imposed in 2010 by a judge at city magistrates for indecency with a 12-year-old boy in Plymouth.

He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison at Exeter Crown Court in 1999.

Nigel Hall, for the Crown Prosecution Service, offered no evidence against Youatt on the breach.

He added: “Because of the ambiguity in the order, the Crown’s view is that it would be difficult to convince the jury that there has been a breach.

“The important thing is that all children and young people are protected by this order.”

Mr Hall added that Youatt did not oppose changing the order to clearly include girls.

Judge Ian Lawrie recorded a not guilty verdict on the breach and ruled that the order be changed.

Youatt will now be released from prison.

September 2010

Plymouth sex offender banned from unsupervised contact with children

A SEX offender has been banned by a court from having unsupervised contact with children.

Plymouth magistrates put a sexual offences prevention order on 63-year-old John Youatt after hearing teenage boys had been visiting his home in Ernesettle.

Youatt, of Coltishall Close, did not contest the order, which will run indefinitely.

He was sentenced to five and a half years in jail in 1999 by a judge at Exeter Crown Court for indecency with a 12-year-old in Plymouth.

Magistrates ruled an order was necessary to protect the public from serious sexual harm.

The four prohibitions ban him being in the company of anybody under 18 in public or in private, excepting on public transport.

He is also prevented from contacting or attempting to contact anybody under that age by any means save in the course of a ‘legitimate business transaction’.

Youatt must not ‘sleep, remain or reside’ in any home where there is a child unless with the express permission of the authorities or the parents — and those parents must have prior knowledge of his previous convictions.

He is also banned from taking part in any recreational or voluntary activity which is likely to lead to unsupervised contact with boys under the age of 18.

Tom Bradnock, applying for the order on behalf of Devon & Cornwall Police, told the court that Youatt had ‘been in the company of teenage boys at his home address’.

Andrew Cooper, for Youatt, confirmed he would not contest the order.

Youatt is already signing the Sex Offenders’ Register.

January 1987

Perverted writer jailed

A writer who planned to kidnap, torture, and sadistically kill young boys for sexual pleasure was jailed for 10 years at the Old Bailey.

James Holland, 58, of Finsbury Park, London, was also convicted of plotting to assault indecently boys under 16, and to assault boys under 16 with intent to commit buggery.

His friend, John Youatt, 39, of Exeter, Devon, was jailed for three years.

He was acquitted of plotting to murder boys, but convicted of the other charges.