Pervert preyed on disabled woman
A‘SEXUAL predator’ who abused a mentally-disabled woman in his car in Runcorn has been jailed for nine years with four years to serve on licence.
Paul James Morris, 62, of Navigation Close, Murdishaw, approached his victim as she waited for her carer during a shopping trip to Trident Retail Park, Oliver King, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court.
Convicted flasher Morris made an indecent proposition to her and asked if she wanted to go to his car.
His victim, in her mid50s, refused and made an excuse that she needed to withdraw money and meet her carer.
Morris persisted and told her: “It’s between me and you, don’t tell your carer.”
She relented and inside the car he engaged in several indecent acts, reacting to shoppers passing the vehicle by pulling down a sun blind.
The victim told police she tried to push him away.
The court heard that his victim lives in supported accommodation under supervision and has regular contact with a social worker.
Morris claimed she did not seem ‘different’ from anyone else.
In her victim statement the woman said her ordeal left her ‘upset for a very long time’ and made her cry before she told care staff and police.
Since the incident she had also been worried he would ‘come and find me’.
She stopped wanting to go out and has ceased her usual activities.
Morris pleaded guilty on the day of trial on August 30 when he admitted two offences of sexual activity with a mentallydisordered female who could not refuse by way of her impairment.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a sexual offences prevention order (Sopo) that had been imposed after he exposed himself to two girls several years ago.
The breach occurred during a second incident several months after the abuse at Trident Retail Park and took place when the same mentallyimpaired woman refused an invitation to join him in his car.
Undeterred, Morris followed her onto a bus before finally leaving her alone.
The incident was seen by witnesses and recorded on CCTV.
His Sopo had prohibited him from following or approaching females in a manner that could cause distress or alarm.
He was arrested on February 12, telling police he remembered he ‘met a girl whose name he didn’t know’ about six months earlier at Trident Retail Park and she had seemed distressed so he stopped to help her.
Morris said he bumped into her a few more times but denied anything sexual – something he later contradicted in his defence statement with partial admissions.
The court heard Morris’s record had 10 convic- tions for 18 offences, the first dating back to 1982 in a case of indecent exposure in 1982, followed by dishonesty cases during the 1980s and then outraging public decency in May 2005, followed by two offences of engaging in sexual activity with a child – one of these cases involved exposing himself and performing an indecent act in front of two females.
He was again caught exposing himself and doing the same thing in front of two females in June 2008.
Judge Steven Everett, presiding, was satisfied Morris was a ‘dangerous offender’ and should receive an extended prison sentence due to the escalation in offending and lack of understanding of the impact of his actions on his victims.
Simon Christie, defending, said that the victim had been known to social services throughout her adult life and during that time no-one in authority had formed the view that she could not consent, adding that she has had at least one boyfriend.
He said his client had only been expecting to face the Sopo breach matter when arrested.
Sentencing Morris, Judge Everett said: “It’s clear to me, however, and from what I’ve seen, that you are a sexual predator, that you don’t understand the seriousness of what you do and that at the moment you are a true danger to females of all ages, young and old and your perverted sexual needs come first.
“This particular indictment in my judgement indicates that very clearly and underlines that point.”
He added: “It’s clear you have no sense of how you should behave to women or generally in public – this particular lady of limited intellectual ability and impairment lives in sheltered accommodation. You knew she had a carer on the day in question.”