September 2006

Paedophile who breached banning order is spared jail

A PAEDOPHILE who was warned he faced a significant jail sentence for repeatedly breaching an order to curb his behaviour has been spared prison.

John Neville Kay was given a community order with three years’ supervision and ordered to take part in a sex offenders’ group programme by a judge who told him: “Things are getting to a dangerous stage.”

Kay, 51, was arrested a week after he was indefinitely banned from owning a camera, taking or possessing photographs and ordered to stay away from anyone under 18.

Convicted child rapist Kay – branded a danger to the public – was caught with a packet of pictures, three of which had children in the background.

The photographs – taken during day trips to Stockton’s International Riverside Festival, Whitby, and a Blues festival in County Durham – were found when his car was searched by police.

Nigel Soppitt, in mitigation, told Teesside Crown Court on Friday that Kay took the snaps of a new girlfriend on days out and did not intend to have the youngsters in the background.

“He took the camera with him to these festivals so he could have some sort of memory of them,” Mr Soppitt said.

“He knows he should not have done that.

“He knows now that the order has teeth and a breach can carry five years, and it is a stark choice facing the court.

“It could, of course, send him back to prison and he could come out without supervision or monitoring.”

Kay was jailed for 12 years in 1997 – reduced to ten on appeal – for raping an eight-year-old girl and making underage prostitutes working in Middlesbrough dress up in silk scarves and pose for photographs.

He was released in 2002, but his parole was revoked for inappropriate behaviour.

In June this year, he was given an interim sexual prevention order banning him from mixing with young people, after allegations he tried to groom two teenage girls he had met in Chop Gate, North Yorkshire.

The order was made indefinite in August, but it was breached within a day when he bought a camera from a charity shop.

Retired computer technician Kay, of Bridge Street, Stockton, formerly of Newcomen Terrace, Redcar, east Cleveland, pleaded guilty to possessing images of children.

Judge Anthony Briggs told Kay: “Breaching of these orders is always a serious matter, which can result in custody of a very substantial length.”