Graduate guilty of a bizarre hoax call
A UNIVERSITY masters graduate who told an NHS Direct call handler he was a ‘human hermaphrodite’ left pregnant after being gang raped has appeared in court over hoax phone calls.
Orion Phoenix, 32, from Blackley, Manchester, also claimed he had an ‘unwanted pregnancy’ as a result of the encounter and asked for medical advice.
The unnamed call handler referred Phoenix, a computer engineer, to senior healthcare professionals in the belief the request was genuine but later discovered the call was a hoax.
Police traced Phoenix and discovered he had a history of making other hoax phone calls. He had also been made subject of a Criminal Behaviour Order after clocking up 28 malicious communications offences between 2004 and 2017.
At Manchester magistrates court, Phoenix was convicted of breaching the order but walked free from court with a 12-week custodial sentence suspended for 12 months.
He had denied any wrongdoing. Prosecuting, David Morgan told the court: “He was making up stories to persuade the call handler to say something sexual and it seems he derived some pleasure from it.”
In mitigation, defence lawyer Laura Beaumanis said: “The defendant said he was a young man with various mental health issues and has no recollection of making the telephone call.
“He said he suffered disassociation at the time. This is an unusual offence and he does have a record for similar offending.”
Phoenix was also ordered to pay £322 court costs and his criminal behaviour order was extended for a further 12 months.