May 2023

Sex offender jailed for not telling police he had moved to Devon

A sex offender has been sent back to jail after he left his registered address on the Isle of Wight and ended up in Torquay.

Gary Taylor, a 63-year-old with a criminal record containing 203 offences, breached his Sex Offender Notification Requirement by not telling police he had moved to Devon.

He was arrested in Totnes and admitted failing to comply with the notification requirements when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court. He said he had got mixed up with the rules and was jailed for nine months.

Prosecutor Miss Caroline Bolt said the defendant’s long list of previous convictions, mostly for public disorder and drink-related offending, stretched back to 1973.

He was convicted of sexual assault in 2009 and jailed for eight years and four months in 2015 for sexual assault by penetration.

Taylor was categorised as a dangerous offender when he was jailed for a total of eight years and four months in 2015 for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman who had mental health issues.

He approached her while she was sitting on a bench in June 2014 and offered her a cigarette and whisky before taking a spot her to a bridge at Summerlock Approach where he was sleeping rough.

He went on to sexually assault her, leaving her traumatised. She told police Taylor was ‘rank’ and she had told him to leave her alone. She later said she felt sick and terrified.

He also has convictions for sexually assaulting lone females on trains and was already on the register when he committed the offence in Salisbury.

In February he left his address in the Isle of Wight and police issued a warrant to find him. He was homeless, arrested and taken back into custody for breaching his requirements.

He accepted he had failed to comply with the conditions of the court order he was given in 2015.

Judge David Evans reminded Taylor that once he is released from prison he will still be subject to the conditions of the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life.