A sexual predator, Kevin Payne Bradford Paedophile, has been sentenced to over two years in prison for committing an indecent act near a children’s playground.
Kevin Payne, 67, was subject to a stringent court mandate prohibiting him from approaching children’s playgrounds due to prior convictions for child sexual offences.
On June 12, he parked his vehicle in Valley Gardens in Harrogate and proceeded to a forested vicinity adjacent to a children’s playground, as presented before York Crown Court.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said a passer-by spotted Kevin Payne performing a lewd act in woods overlooking the play park.
Kevin Payne was “startled” by the passer-by, who spotted him through a gap in a hedge and shouted over to him as Payne ran away.
“The passer-by gave chase and (as) he followed Kevin Payne, he took a number of pictures of him before apprehending him and keeping him there until police arrived,” added Ms Morrison.
Kevin Payne was arrested and admitted breaching a sexual-harm prevention order which prohibited him from going within 100 metres of any recreational area where there may be children present.
However, he denied a separate charge of outraging public decency by behaving in an indecent manner, namely performing a lewd act.
Kevin Payne, from Bradford, was due to face trial today but admitted the offence at the last minute.
Ms Morrison said that Kevin Payne committed the offences in Harrogate while under investigation for downloading indecent sexual imagery online.
He was arrested for those offences in December last year after police monitoring officers paid him a routine visit to check he was complying with the sexual-harm prevention order following a previous jail sentence for child-sex offences.
Kevin Payne handed over his mobile phone on which police found internet searches for sexual images of children and an indecent photo of a child rated Category A – the worst kind.
They also found six images of extreme pornography, namely bestiality.
Kevin Payne admitted making an indecent image of a child and possessing six extreme-pornographic images following his arrest and was recalled to prison to serve the remainder of a six-month jail sentence imposed in June last year for making indecent images of children.
He was released from prison in January this year and went on to commit the offences at Valley Gardens in June.
The Crown proceeded to sentence on all matters today as the prosecution outlined Payne’s 40-year criminal history, which comprised 51 previous offences including many for indecently exposing himself in front of young girls and making indecent images of children.
His rap sheet also included voyeurism, kerb-crawling, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, serious violence, harassment, public disorder, and breaching court orders.
He had been given extended prison sentences in the past for child-sex offences as various judges deemed him a dangerous offender.
Defence barrister Derek Duffy said Kevin Payne “did not intend to be seen by anybody” in Valley Gardens when he carried out the lewd act.
He said that Kevin Payne had rented accommodation in Bradford before being remanded in custody, but he had since lost that and intended to live with a friend in Harrogate upon his release from jail.
He added that Kevin Payne – formerly of Ling Park Avenue, Bingley, but currently of no fixed address – was a retired man who had lost all contact with his family and was a “rather despondent” figure.
Judge Simon Hickey described Kevin Payne’s latest offences in Valley Gardens as “quite revolting” and told him: “You are, worryingly, 67, and you are still committing offences of this nature.
“Fortunately, the children were not to see what you did.”
Kevin Payne was given a 27-month jail sentence but will only spend half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence.
He was ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for ten years and the judge ordered that the sexual-harm prevention order would remain in place.
Mr Hickey said the named witness who chased and detained Kevin Payne would be paid £150 from the public purse for his “very-public-spirited” actions.
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