PERVERT HAD VIEWED VIDEO OF VIOLIN GIRL

Sex offender arrested after watching ‘all sorts’ on phone

A PENSIONER who sexually abused schoolgirls has appeared back in court after he watched Youtube videos of a girl playing a violin.

Stewart Swain, aged 72, was back in court after he started viewing ‘all sorts’ on a phone he was banned from owning.

Stoke-on-trent Crown Court heard he was jailed for six-anda-half years in 2011 for serious sexual offences against children including indecent assault of schoolgirls and making and possessing indecent photographs of children.

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for life which bans him having a device which can access the internet. But he told the police he had bought a new Samsung smartphone and he had watched videos on Youtube showing a young girl playing a violin.

He added that ‘it went on to all sorts’ and he wanted the phone removed from him. Now Swain has been sentenced to a two-year community order.

Prosecutor Mia Mcnevin said: “The defendant attended Longton Police Station on November 16. He signed a form indicating he had obtained an internet connectable device.”

Swain’s offender manager contacted him on December 1. Miss Mcnevin said: “The defendant told her he had been using an internet connectable phone to access Youtube and had watched a young girl play the violin.

“He said it ‘went on to all sorts’. He said he wanted the phone taken away from him.”

The police attended his home, seized the phone and arrested him. He said he had bought the phone a couple of weeks earlier. He said he saw videos which upset him. He accepted he had a sexual interest in children but maintained he did not search for indecent images of children or sexual images.

Miss Mcnevin added: “He said he had seen a solicitor who told him he could use the internet. He later accepted he may have misheard what the solicitor said.”

Swain, of Carlton Avenue, Tunstall, pleaded guilty to breaching an SHPO. As part of the community order Swain must complete a rehabilitation activity requirement for 55 days.

Judge Michael Maher said: “It is disturbing you remain sexually attracted to young girls but it is to your credit that you volunteered that information.”

The judge made a deprivation order for the phone and ordered Swain to pay £225 costs.