June 2022

Sex offender abused children in street and raided Scarborough’s Grand Hotel

A sex offender who abused children in the street and burgled a hotel room at night has been jailed.

CCTV in the street captured Nathan Luke Collinson, 33, kissing and groping two 15-year-old girls simultaneously, said Robert Stevenson, prosecuting.

They had been walking along the residential road together when Collinson, who was standing outside a house, shouted at them and they went over to him.

He then sexually abused both.

He had previously served a short prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman in 2012 but had a total of 83 previous convictions

“Men of your age need to understand you don’t start kissing and groping young girls,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Collinson.

“You are a prolific offender”.

Collinson, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual activity with a child, one of burglary and one of possessing cannabis.

He was jailed for two years, put on the sex offenders’ register for another 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for six years.

Mr Stevenson said the two girls were walking along the street in Scarborough on October 16 last year between 8pm and 9pm.

He kissed and hugged both girls and molested them, at one point sitting on a wall where the street met another street.

During the incident, the girls walked off and Collinson followed them at 15 metres.

Then they returned and all three went into a house together but a woman in the address later told police nothing untoward happened inside the house.

The girls told police about what had happened to them on October 23 and gave Collinson’s nickname.

He was arrested on November 13, a police search found drugs in his pocket and he was picked out by both girls at an identification procedure.

Released on bail, he broke into a room where a couple were sleeping at Scarborough’s Grand Hotel in the early hours of March 19 this year and grabbed £40 from the man’s wallet.

His actions woke the male sleeper and he ran off.

Hotel CCTV showed he had tried several room doors before going into the one he raided.

Eleven days later he returned to the hotel, although he wasn’t staying there, said Mr Stevenson.

Hotel staff alerted police who were on site collecting CCTV to use as evidence against him.

He had 83 previous convictions, many of them for theft and commercial burglary.