July 2011

Pervert caught rubbing up against boy sent back to jail

A paedophile with a history of sex offences against children was caught rubbing up against a five-year-old boy just 23 days after he was released from prison.

John McCormack, also known as Jam Morgan, was jailed for three years yesterday after pleading guilty to breaching a sex offenders prevention order (SOPO), banning him from contact with children.

Officers who were keeping the 34-year-old under surveillance following his release from prison saw him approach a young boy, who was holding on to a pushchair with a baby in it, in Tesco, Granby Street, in the city centre, on November 25.

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said the youngster was in the sweets aisle, while the adult supervising him was briefly elsewhere in the store.

McCormack rubbed his right leg against the boy, aged about four or five, for about 20 seconds, while covertly touching himself with his hand in his pocket.

When the adult returned, McCormack moved away, then momentarily returned to the child when he thought nobody was looking. The child moved around the pushchair.

When the adult in charge took the child out of the shop, McCormack also left.

He was seen hanging around near the child outside another shop, although there was no physical contact on that occasion.

Leicester Crown Court was told that in 1998, McCormack, of no fixed address, was jailed for three years for indecently assaulting a child.

He was later sentenced to nine months imprisonment for breaching a SOPO, which banned him from contact with young children.

In 2002, he was jailed for four years for breaching the SOPO after initiating contact with a group of children.

In 2007, McCormack was jailed for three years for two offences involving physical contact by rubbing himself against a child. In 2009, he was prosecuted for again breaching the SOPO and jailed for three years, and had been released on an early release licence.

Sally Bamford, in mitigation, said the child in the store was too young to realise what was going on.

She said McCormack “recognises he has a serious problem and needs assistance with it”.

Ms Bamford said McCormack was due to attend a course in jail to help him address his problems.

Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Metcalf said: “The aggravating part of this offending is you’ve been subject to no less than eight breaches of SOPOs in the past.

“You’re a very high-risk sex offender. You targeted a boy in a store and moved around him, touching him.

“However, the most important factor is you now want treatment and you’ll get that at the prison you’re going to.”

November 2002

Child abuser admits breaching his order

A CONVICTED paedophile, who made legal history by becoming the first person in Northamptonshire to be banned from having contact with children, has breached the order.

Since the groundbreaking piece of legislation was put in place more than two years ago, John McCormack has made repeated visits to youngsters in Northampton.

During routine police checks, it emerged that 25-year-old McCormack had befriended a man whose sister had two children, aged four and six.

In one case, the convicted child abuser spent some time playing computergames with the woman’s son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, while the two were alone in the child’s bedroom.

McCormack, who has been deemed to be a serious danger to children, yesterday pleaded guilty to three breaches of the banning order.

At the hearing before Northampton magistrates, Suraj Minocha, prosecuting, said: “McCormack had made visits to the address in Northampton and during that time, one child had been left alone in a bedroom playing computer games with him.

“There was an occasion at a public house when McCormack spent most of the time play fighting and generally engaging in activities with the children.”

The offences were committed between September 19 this year and October 7, and Mr Minocha said they were aggravated by McCormack’s previous convictions for sex offences.

It also emerged that McCormack had breached the prohibition order on two other occasions, by failing to notify police of a change of address and by absconding.

McCormack, of Swale Drive, Kings Heath, appeared before magistrates yesterday via a video link from Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes.

Stuart Jefferies, defending, said: “There is concern about the nature of the breaches but it’s evident there are no further allegations of indecency inferred.

“The contact was innocent but a breach of the order nonetheless, and Mr McCormack had no reasonable excuse to be with the children.”