March 2012

Sex offender sent to jail for defying ban

A SEX offender has been jailed after defying a court order to stay away from children.

Jacob Greenaway, 19, was banned from having any unsupervised contact with youngsters, but invited schoolboys to drunken parties at his seaside lodgings.

One of his parties was so rowdy that neighbours called police who found a 15-year-old boy passed out on the bathroom floor.

The next day he gave shelter to a drunken 13-year-old boy who had run away from home and been reported missing by his parents in North Devon.

Greenaway joined a youth club in Westward Ho! without telling its organisers that he was on the sex offenders’ register and banned from seeing under-16s by a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

The restrictions were imposed on him after he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy in 2009, when he was 16.

Greenaway, of Coronation Terrace, Ilfracombe, admitted five offences of breaching a SOPO at Exeter Crown Court last year and was originally sentenced to supervision.

He was jailed for three months by Judge Phillip Wassall after failing to keep appointments or complete unpaid community work.

The judge told him: “These were really serious breaches of the SOPO which was imposed following the commission of serious offences involving sexual activity with a child.

“You were aware of the order but you had children back at your flat in circumstances where there was drink involved and this happened more than once. Although no offence occurred, given your conviction, they were at risk.”

The judge took into account the work Greenaway had done while on supervision before he stopped complying with its terms.

Mr Greg Richardson, prosecuting, said Greenaway was subject to a SOPO in January last year when he joined a youth club in Westward Ho! while living nearby.

Mr Richardson said: “During his enrolment he was in contact with people under 16 and he failed to tell the appropriate adult of his offences. He later told the Youth Offending Team he did not think about his SOPO and said he joined because he had a sense of isolation and profound loneliness.”

Richard Crabb, defending, said Greenaway was isolated from family and friends and had missed appointments with supervising officers because of problems with public transport in Ilfracombe.

He said there was no suggestion that anything improper had occurred with the young people his client met in defiance of his ban.