Jail for sex offender Melissa Kenyon, who breached court order not to have any contact with children

Melissa Louise Kenyon, formerly Gedge, had close contact with a young girl, in contravention of a sexual-harm preventon order imposed in September 2016 after she admitted four counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Kenyon, 33, breached the order while staying at a flat in Scarborough with a convicted sex offender. It was at this flat that she had contact with the child, York Crown Court heard.

Kenyon had formed a relationship with the man after being released from a three-year jail sentence for sex offences, said prosecutor Rob Galley.

As part of that sentence, she was banned from having any advertent contact with children under the age of 16 and had to notify police of any change of address.

She breached the order by allowing the child into the flat and walking around Scarborough town centre with the girl, added Mr Galley.

He said that on one occasion, Kenyon was with the youngster when the girl was in a state of undress, although there was no sexual contact.

She also failed to notify police that she had been staying at the flat with the man, who would later be convicted of child sex offences.

Mr Galley said that Kenyon had been staying with the man between November 2019 and March this year without informing the authorities of what was effectively a change of address.

She had been placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life after her conviction in 2016 and made subject to the sexual-harm prevention order indefinitely.

Mr Galley said police found evidence of the breaches when they went to the flat on May 19 and found several photos of the child on Kenyon’s phone.

The photos were not indecent and the child was fully-clothed, but also appearing on the photographs was the named Scarborough man who was on court bail at the time, awaiting trial for sex crimes. He was recently convicted of child rape in relation to another young girl.

Kenyon admitted she had been staying with the sex offender three or four times a week, for about five months, and that the child had visited the property.

She appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday after admitting two breaches of the sexual-harm prevention order and one count of failing to comply with notification requirements.

The court heard that in 2016, Kenyon and her former partner, 62-year-old John Bradburn, were jailed for engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child at a property in Filey.

Although the child was not sexually assaulted, Bradburn was said to have got a kick out of having sex in front of the child and Kenyon was “drawn into” doing the same.

They were also said to have had chats on Skype with a like-minded individual about their sexual deviances and debauched conversations with others on internet chatrooms.

Kevin Blount, mitigating, claimed that Kenyon was unaware that the man with whom she had formed the new relationship was a child sex offender.

Kenyon, from Scarborough, claimed she knew only that he had previous convictions for serious violence, and only became aware of the sex offences when he was on trial at the Crown Court.

It was only after he was convicted and remanded in prison, pending sentence, that she informed police that she had moved into the flat and taken over the lease.

Judge Sean Morris said he was “convinced” that the real reason Kenyon didn’t inform police until then was because she knew that the Scarborough man was on bail awaiting trial for child sex offences.

He told Kenyon: “That man brought somebody’s child into the house - a young, vulnerable child of similar age to the victim in your (previous) offence.

“It risked very serious harm (to the child). There (was) every possibility that you could have fallen into temptation to act as you did in your last offence.”

Mr Morris added: “It just demonstrates that you had no regard whatsoever to the prohibitions…about being in the presence of such a child.”

The judge said that Kenyon had “deliberately” kept secret the fact that she was living with a child sex offender, adding: “This is one of the most worrying breaches of a sexual-harm (prevention) order and (of) a notification requirement that I’ve come across.”

Kenyon was given a 30-month jail sentence, of which she will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence. The sexual-harm prevention order will remain in place to protect children.