March 2016
Warning to parents! This sex offender will soon be back on the streets
PARENTS are warned that a sex offender with an “ongoing preoccupation with under-age girls” and a string of previous convictions will soon be back on the streets.
Michael Kirkby has admitted sitting on a park bench watching a young girl, has been caught with many pictures of children and has previously been jailed for indecently assaulting girls after luring them to a disused warehouse.
But the 51-year-old, formerly of Freeman Street, Grimsby will be released from jail shortly for a series of new offences – and it is due to the way our legal system works.
As a result of a past offence, Kirkby had been given a sexual offences prevention order designed to keep him away from children, the terms of which ban him from having contact with under 16s or possessing images of them.
However, it was alleged he breached that order on November 1 last year in Grimsby’s Grant Thorold Park and as a result was arrested and remanded in custody.
This week he appeared at the town’s Crown Court before a jury where he denied that breach. The jury accepted his version of events and cleared him.
BUT what they had not been told – because it is not allowed in order to ensure a fair trial – is that Kirkby had already admitted other order breaches, including charges of possessing images of children.
As a result, the judge could only sentence him based on the earlier admissions. That sentence was eight months, and as he has already spent four months in custody, his release from jail is imminent.
The evidence the jury had heard was set out by Katy Rafter, prosecuting. That court was told how a 10-year-old girl noticed Kirkby staring at her in the “baby park” area of Grant Thorold Park. He admitted moving to a bench so he could look at her.
Miss Rafter claimed that, every time the girl moved, he moved as well.
She claimed that Kirkby eventually “plucked up the courage to speak to the girl” and asked her where she lived.
“When she said she would not tell him, he said he would find out one day and would come and knock on her door,” claimed Miss Rafter.
Kirkby continued watching the girl and a male witness saw him talking to her and thought that he was with her.
He noticed that whenever the youngster moved, Kirkby followed her. A witness went to speak to a nearby security guard. The police were alerted and arrived ten minutes later.
The conditions of the sexual offences prevention order were discovered and Kirkby was arrested.
He denied speaking to anyone, although he admitted he must have been at the park for two or three hours.
“He was adamant he had not spoken to her,” said Miss Rafter.
He claimed the girl “would not speak” because she was “running around with friends”.
The other matters, which he admitted, were discovered after his home was searched.
Mobile phones were seized and there were 29 images of children. They included children at a fairground and youngsters modelling clothes in a catalogue as well as pictures and a video clip from the film Billy Elliot.
Kirkby’s previous convictions include being jailed for six years in 1993 for indecently assaulting girls after taking them to a disused warehouse.
He had been given a conditional discharge in 2012 for possessing hand-drawn images of children.
Craig Lowe, mitigating, said Kirkby had been in custody since his arrest. The images he had were not indecent but he was banned from possessing any of them.
Judge Mark Bury told Kirkby: “You have an ongoing preoccupation with under-age girls.”
The original order had been designed to keep him away from children but he breached it.
“You have continued your preoccupation with young children,” said Judge Bury.
Kirkby was jailed for eight months but, because he had spent nearly four months in custody, was expected to be released shortly.
