November 2014 Registered sex offender jailed after posing as fan of Northern League football club Crook Town to get close to children A REGISTERED sex offender gained a position of trust at a football club and ended up selling club merchandise and even helping out at a family fun day, a court heard. A judge who jailed Andrew Neil Gordon for three years branded him as ‘calculating’, saying the 42-year-old posed as a dedicated fan of Northern LeagueCrook Town to get close to children. However, he was rumbled when the club’s then-chairman Gerald Hirst overheard him use prison slang while talking to a customer in a charity shop where he also volunteered. It raised the suspicions of Mr Hirst, a former prison worker, who manages the Chernobyl Children’s Project charity shop in the town, that he might be a sex offender. “I knew straight away he was working in the wrong place and with the wrong people,” he told The Northern Echo. Gordon, 42, of West Springs, Crook, was the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (Sopo) – prohibiting access to under-16s. This arose from his second conviction for taking/making indecent photographs of children, for which he was jailed for three years in 2008. Durham Crown Court heard four months of that sentence was for breaching the notification provisions as a registered sex offender and he was jailed for another 16 months for a further nine breaches of the order, including allowing children into his house in December 2011. The court heard Gordon became more involved at the unwitting club, helping with maintenance and assisting at the Millfield ground clubhouse after he began watching matches. He offered to sell club merchandise, often to young fans, on match days and began travelling on the club bus to away games, with the children of other officials often on board. Gordon also assisted on the gate at a family fun day at the ground, and was seen wandering round the various attractions. Mr Hirst added: “He was well spoken, and eloquent, but he was lazy and would only do what he wanted to do. The community has had a lucky escape.” Gordon, who was also nominated for the club committee, admitted three counts of breaching the Sopo. Kate Dodds, prosecuting, said there was an obvious risk to children at the football club and this was not his first breach. Susan Hirst, mitigating, said he had remained largely housebound after his previous prison sentence, so his father suggested they watched their local football team as a means of him getting out more. She said it was largely “lawful behaviour” as he became more involved helping at the club. But Judge Christopher Prince said: “These orders are put in place to stop people like him getting into a position to have access to children.” He told Gordon: “You are someone who is adept at manipulating situations to get close to children and able to flout orders. “You have a sexual attraction to female children and your behaviour has been a calculated choice. “I take the view you were fully aware of the provisions of your sexual offences prevention order and you were manipulating your contacts at the football club and at a local charity shop to bring yourself into close proximity to children.” He jailed Gordon for three years and ordered the Sopo to continue indefinitely