Pervert who sent explicit images to ‘child’ online walks free after breaching SOPO

However 34-year-old James Andrew Gillison walked free from Newtownards Magistrates Court on Wednesday after he was handed a two year conditional discharge.

District Judge Mark Hamill told the self-confessed pervert the sentence “is a good result, or it may be a very bad result,” warning Gillison that “if you offend again, I will sentence you again, it’s up to you.”

Gillison, from Malvern Heights in Bangor, had earlier admitted breaching his SOPO on 17 July this year in that he “failed to register devices you had access to or possession of with Police to include serial and IMEI numbers and relevant passwords for the devices.”

A prosecutor outlined how police arrested Gillison on an unrelated matter when they found a mobile phone and two Xbox gaming consoles at his home.

He had not registered the devices with his designated risk manager and the court heard that while he had provided the password for one, he had not given police access to the second console.

That put him in breach of his SOPO which was imposed by DJ Hamill in august 2020 after Gillison admitted attempting to sexually communicate with a child on dates between February 5-20 2019 in that “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification,” he attempted to communicate with a person under 16, “the communication being sexual.”

The court heard that although Gillison believed he was chatting to ‘Kelly’ she was in fact an undercover police officer and in that case, a prosecuting lawyer outlined how Gillison began chatting with the supposed teenager through an online chat site where he was told “the age of the child.”

“He continued with the communication and sexualised it,” said the lawyer, describing how he sent four images to ‘Kelly,’ two of his face and two which were “sexually explicit.”

When Gillison was arrested, mobile phones were seized for examination but during police interviews, the pervert refused to answer police questions.

At that time DJ Hamill ordered Gillison to complete an 18 month probation programme as well as imposing a five year SOPO.

Further to that case Gillison was also prosecuted in the Crown Court for indecent images of children, receiving a suspended jail sentence in April last year and in court on Wednesday, the PPS confirmed that despite breaching that suspended sentence they had opted to keep this case in the petty sessions.

Defence counsel Stuart Magee revealed that the unregistered devices had been seized from Gillison during the initial investigation and had been handed back to the 34-year-old.

Conceding that Gillison had not officially registered them with his DRM, he emphasised “there’s no suggestion that he was using them in any sinister way.”

Imposing the conditional discharge, DJ Hamill said given the stance by the PPS to prosecute the case in the Magistrates Court, “I’m going to take this at it’s lowest level - I have no option but to do that.”