June 2009

Family call for sex offender to be moved

A Bath family have called for a convicted sex offender who asked a teenage girl to show him her breasts to move house.

Michael Matthews, aged 67, had invited the girl and her boyfriend to his home at Blagdon Park in Bath before asking the girl, who was under the age of 16, to expose herself.

The retired lorry driver was handed a three-year community order with a supervision requirement to attend a sex offender programme after admitting a charge of causing or inciting the girl to engage in sexual activity in February.

He was also given a Sex Offences Prevention Order without any time limit, banning him from having unsupervised contact with children under 16, and he will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years

However the girl’s family, which cannot be named for legal reasons, have objected to the sentence and want the court to issue a new order which would force Matthews to move away.

He appeared in the dock at Bristol Crown Court on Friday following an application by the Probation Service to revoke his existing order.

Timothy Hills, prosecuting, told the court: “The family live in a state of great unhappiness. He’s refusing to move.