Pervert pensioner jailed after breaching court order
Convicted sex offender Stephen Ford Hutchinson downloaded a social media app without permission.
Stephen Ford Hutchinson
Sentencing Stephen Ford Hutchinson at Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, District Judge Nigel Broderick told the 70-year-old he had been 'extremely fortunate' to get a suspended sentence for the index offences of attempted sexual communication with a child.
'In conjunction with that sentence the court imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and the purpose of that was to reduce the risk to the public, especially in terms of sexual communication with children' he told Hutchinson.
The judge said it was 'particularly concerning' that Hutchinson had downloaded and used the Telegram app which, according to police, 'is notorious for being used by criminals seeking to hide their conduct and behaviour.'
Stephen Ford Hutchinson
News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, July 29
Earlier this year Hutchinson, from the Curran Road in Larne, admitted he had breached the SOPO on 7 April by downloading the app without prior approval from his Designated Risk Manager.
The SOPO, an order designed to protect the public, was put in place last year after Hutchinson was convicted of attempting to sexually communicate with a child between 18 July and 1 August 2022.
In that case the pensioner, who had also entered guilty pleas to three charges of having extreme pornography, had been ensnared by a paedophile hunter group whose decoy had been posing as a 14-year-old girl.
The court heard how he had exchanged highly sexualised messages with the decoy and that believing he was talking to a teenage girl, he sent her explicit images of himself.
During the contest, Hutchinson's testimony was at times bizarre as he claimed that he was a 'digital soldier' helping to combat against 'dark forces' involved in 'molesting children and sexualising children, indoctrinating them in schools and cannibalism.' Read more
'I believe it involves Satanic ritual child abuse and worldwide trafficking of children,' the 70-year-old told the court, claiming that at the time of the offending he had been 'tracking what was purported to be the greatest military intelligence operation in the history of the planet.'
'It was an online thing, I'm not a member of it, just tracking that's all and we had been led to believe that there was an emergency alert system imminent whereby a worldwide alert had been put out and the military would come in and take over.'
In October last year, Judge Broderick imposed a five-month jail sentence, suspended for three years and commented that 'from what he has told probation that he is living in a different world - he seems to be delusional.'
In court today (tues), a prosecuting lawyer confirmed that having spoken to Hutchinson's Designated Risk Manager (DRM), he confirmed that if the pensioner had asked for approval for the app, 'that would not have been granted.'
'It is notorious for criminals trying to hide their behaviour and liaising with like-minded individuals, ' he told the court.
Defence counsel Nadine Knight said that according to Hutchinson himself, the police had looked through the app and had found only 'innocuous' material, adding that the pensioner 'is entirely remorseful' for the breach.
'He realises it puts his liberty at risk because he is in breach of a suspended sentence' as well as breaching the SOPO itself, said the barrister who highlighted that Hutchinson has been diagnosed with 'persistent delusional disorder' as well as living as an 'isolated individual.'
Judge Broderick said however, 'I'm of the view that the custody threshold is crossed' so he imposed three months for the breach and activated five months of the previously suspended sentence, ordering them too be served consecutively.
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