March 2016: Has changed his surname and is now called Philip John Lowe
February 2010
Chorley after-school club sex abuser spared jail
A man who sexually abused two pupils at an after-school sports club in Lancashire has been spared a jail term.
Philip Masterson, 25, of St Gregory’s Place, Chorley, admitted three counts of engaging in sexual activity with the young boys.
One of the offences was committed in a school staff room.
At Preston Crown Court, Judge Norman Wright considered jailing him for up to 12 months but gave him a community order after probation service advice.
Masterson, who pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing, was involved in running the club at a Chorley secondary school, the court was told.
The first offence took place in April 2008 when he grabbed an 11-year-old from behind in a darkened side room.
The boy said Masterson pulled his trousers down and then his own as Masterson pressed against him, Paul Cummings, prosecuting, said.
Eight months later the same boy was targeted in the staff room.
In January 2009, Masterson abused a second boy, 14, who was helping him to collect games equipment from a store room.
The schoolboy was pushed against a wall by Masterson, who groped him.
Judge Wright told Masterson: “These offences are aggravated by the fact that you were in a position of trust at the time.”
He said he faced two options – either to send him to prison for up to 12 months or a “more constructive approach” of a community order.
A pre-sentence report from the probation service said time on a sex offenders’ treatment programme would be more beneficial to Masterson and the public.
Judge Wright said: “It is clear to me you are a young man who is quite immature, someone who has not yet learned how to build relationships, and it seems has mixed emotions about your sexuality which you have not addressed.”
Masterson was given a three-year community order and must attend the sex offenders’ treatment programme for 60 days.
He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years and banned from working with children for life.
