Pervert, 58, trading his squalid flat for ‘something sexual’
ONE of the men posting sleazy ‘sex for rent’ adverts can be exposed today as a former Labour councillor who was previously jailed for trying to sexually groom an underage girl.
John Friary, who campaigned beside former Cabinet Minister Harriet Harman while he was a councillor in London, was sent to prison in 2011 for attempting to seduce a person he believed to be a 15-year-old.
Now the Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that the 58-year-old is living in Edinburgh – and has been trying to procure ‘sexual favours’ from young women on the internet by offering them free accommodation.
Friary, who lives in a one-bedroom flat on a council estate in Edinburgh, posted an advert on Craigslist: ‘Mature man offering free accommodation to younger women in return for sexual favours so get in touch ASAP with details, age and pics and let’s chat, free to move in now.’
Posing as a young female student, an undercover reporter responded that she was struggling financially and needed cheap accommodation. Friary replied eagerly, stating that she could stay with him in his room – or on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room – and that he was ‘just looking for something sexual in return’.
In messages too graphic for a family newspaper, he listed his preferences and confirmed that he would offer free accommodation in return. He sent a picture of himself in a yellow hi-vis jacket, followed by images of his ground-floor flat, showing a cluttered room and unmade single bed, a small, untidy kitchen and a dark, crammed living room adorned with Scottish flags. He then asked to see a picture of the undercover reporter – which we refused.
Last week, we approached Friary at his home in Silverknowes, and asked him to explain his exploitative advert, but he refused to comment.
Friary was previously head of community safety and a Labour councillor at Southwark Council in London. He was sacked and jailed for 15 months in 2011 after admitting that he sent a ‘15-year-old schoolgirl’ graphic online messages.
In reality, he was messaging a scheming blackmailer who was planning to extort money from him – but he believed he was speaking to a teenager called ‘Hannah’.
After ‘she’ contacted him on the internet, he begged for racy pictures and arranged to meet for sex, promising to be a ‘father figure’, while saying their chat was getting him ‘turned on’.
Friary, who tried to take ‘Hannah’ to his home in Camberwell, South London, for a night of passion, later pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange a meeting with a child following sexual grooming.