Court agrees to alter teen sex offender’s terms

Monday 08 July 2019

A young man, who was sentenced after sexual activity with two 13-year-olds old at a time when he was “emotionally immature”, has had his notification requirements under the Sex Offender’s Law removed.

The offences were committed around three years ago when the young man – who has not been named – was 17 and 18 years old.

In 2016, he was sentenced to an 18-month probation order and 240 hours’ community service order after striking up a relationship with a young girl and later having intercourse with her, and later sending sexual messages to and meeting a second girl of the same age. He also became a registered Sex Offender.

At the time, the Royal Court noted: “He had an emotional functioning level of a 14-year-old and had been receiving treatment for his own mental health issues.”

The offender – now a young man – last year appealed to the Royal Court to be removed from the notification requirements under the Sex Offender’s Law.

“He has complied throughout with the notification requirements and has taken the restrictions imposed upon him seriously. He discharged his community service requirements to the satisfaction of the Probation and After Care Service and the closing comments from the Community Service assistant manager is to the effect that it was a “very successful order”,” the Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq noted.

“He has completed work around sexual offending, age appropriate and sexually healthy relationships, consent, consequence of offending and victim impact work.  He has engaged with that appropriately and the report also confirms that the Applicant has distanced himself from younger associates and has demonstrated evidence of emotional maturation.” 

The request, which was made in November last year, but has only just been made public, was subsequently granted by the Royal Court. 

They agreed that their judgment should be anonymised in order to protect the young man’s burgeoning personal life as a student.

“He is currently a student and there could well be a substantial impact upon his friendship group in the event that details of his previous offending became public knowledge. His friendship group was described as a highly important and a positive factor in his life,” the Court noted.

Granting the request, the Deputy Bailiff concluded: “In our judgment, this applicant does not pose a significant risk of sexual harm to the public or to any particular person or persons and in our view it was appropriate to discontinue the notification requirements and we so ordered.”