March 2015
Gateshead sex offender bragged of false hooligan links in order to groom boys
Behind the bravado and banter, fake football hooligan Kane Hutchison was hiding a dark secret.
The 24-year-old exaggerated links to Tyneside’s notorious soccer ‘firms’ to groom youngsters and fulfil his sick sexual fantasies
Hutchison would falsely claim to be associated with the Newcastle Gremlins to either impress or intimidate his vulnerable potential victims.
And the former football coach would also brag of links with agents and offer youngsters the hope of a soccer career to lure them under his control.
But now Hutchison has been exposed as a predatory paedophile after a court lifted reporting restrictions over his crimes.
Hutchison was jailed for three years last August for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy after offering to take him to watch a football match.
Now he has been found guilty of inciting two teenage boys to engage in sexual activity on the internet, abusing his position for his own gratification.
Hutchison had played for a local amateur team and had coached youngsters there.
He said: “He played for a local team to a reasonable standard in local leagues and has coached children from that club as well.
“He has offered children private coaching sessions at his home address.”
The sexual assaults happened in April last year when he invited a youngster to attend an away match between Gateshead and Macclesfield.
Hutchison, who was banned from going to football matches after taking part in a pitch invasion in 2011, invited the boy to stay over at his home, saying they needed an early start.
He told the boy they would have to share a bed and soon announced it was bed time. Within minutes he began molesting the terrified youngster in the bed, the court heard.
The boy later reported to his mother what had happened and Hutchison was arrested within hours when police found him hiding in the loft.
Hutchison denied two counts of sexual assault but was found guilty after a trial. As well as the three years prison sentence he was told to sign the sex offender register indefinitely and was made subject to a ten-year sexual offences prevention order.
Hutchison, formerly of Field House Road, Gateshead, has now also been found guilty of inciting two other boys on the internet when they were just 13 and 14.
The first victim knew Hutchison played for a football club in Gateshead and was looking into joining the same club.
Hutchison made contact with the boy on Facebook, where he was advertising for players, and they began to communicate.
Prosecutor Alec Burns said: “From the defendant’s point of view the communication became more and more sexual.
“He told him he could earn money making pornographic films, he said £350 an hour.
“He asked (the boy) to send pictures of himself.”
The boy told police Hutchison had communicated with him on ‘face tag’ and the pervert appeared on his computer screen via a webcam committing a sex act on himself.
He encouraged the victim to do the same and made him swap intimate pictures.
Hutchison also tried to meet the youngster in a car park, the court heard.
The offences started in the summer of 2013 and lasted until March last year.
It came to light last August when the boy’s family checked his Facebook account and saw the messages from Hutchison.
He had targeted another boy, aged 14, in a similar way between April and August last year.
Hutchison lied about his age and started asking the youngster to meet him, offering him £20 to do so.
He also sent him intimate pictures of himself on Facebook and Snapchat and encouraged him to do the same.
It came to light when the boy’s mother read about a previous court appearance by Hutchison and recognised him as one of her son’s Facebook friends.
Sentence was adjourned on the latest convictions until next month.
Judge John Evans told him: “Having been convicted of these offences I’m going to adjourn sentence now for a pre-sentence report to address the issue of dangerousness.
“You know only a custodial sentence can follow in relation to these matters.”
The trial heard Hutchison had been “struggling with his sexuality” at the time and has been on a sex offender programme in prison.
