A Portadown paedophile will spend Christmas behind bars as efforts to find him an address continue to prove fruitless.
Kevin Christy, of Park Road, – who today (Friday) celebrates his 41st birthday – appeared in Craigavon Magistrates’ Court, via videolink from Maghaberry, following a recent alleged breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
A prosecution lawyer told the court that, despite a deadline of December 13, the PPS have yet to receive a full file on the case.
She told District Judge Michael Ranaghan that an email was sent to the investigating officer (IO) on December 13 but has yet to receive a response, indicating that she was lodging an application for the IO to attend court on January 3.
Defence barrister Conor Lunny said: “We can’t really argue with the application to have the IO attend. It’s fairly unsatisfactory and so far as you’ll note, this is a very, very straightforward breach of a SOPO.
“When Mr Christie, having been released on probation from the Crown Court, condition number one was that he reside at a designated risk manager (DRM) approved address. His only address is unsuitable, so within two days of his being released from custody, having spent about 10 months on remand, he was arrested on that technical breach.
“He has bail granted, but he can’t perfect that, because that’s the only address available to him, and it now looks like he’s going to spend Christmas inside as a result of an address becoming unavailable.
“That’s the spiel I’ve made two or three times to your worship. It probably won’t have much effect but on behalf of Mr Christie, it is really quite unsatisfactory.
“To be fair to the prosecution, even if we were in a position to take a plea today, the same situation might well reoccur insofar as there isn’t an address that would be suitable to the DRM in place….despite [his solictor’s] extensive efforts with various agencies. Mr Christie, hopefully understands, but there’s little else can be done.”
The case was adjourned until January 3 for the investigating officer to attend.
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