GARY HEALEY BREAKS COURT ORDER FOR EIGHTH TIME IN BIRKENHEAD
Gary Healey travelled to Faro with his fiancé, disregarding his court order for the eighth time.Healey, a convicted child sex offender, flew to Portugal without notifying police that he had obtained a passport or was leaving the country.
Prosecutor Daniel Bramhall told Liverpool Crown Court that the Home Office contacted police on October 22 last year to inform them that Healey had left the UK.
Five days later, Healey’s sex offender manager spoke to him by phone.
The 46-year-old, who was placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years in 2017 after being convicted of inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity earning a suspended prison sentence confirmed he had obtained a passport on December 8, 2020.
He admitted to police that he failed to notify them about his passport and his departure from the country when he voluntarily attended Birkenhead police station.
The court heard Healey has a history of three previous convictions for 11 offences, with an additional seven convictions for breaching the Sex Offenders Register by failing to notify authorities of his homelessness.
Healey, of Osborne Road, Birkenhead, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the SOR order.
He narrowly avoided immediate imprisonment after the judge learned that he had recently been engaging with support workers.
Judge Gary Woodhall sentenced Healey to a six-month prison term, suspended for 15 months, and ordered him to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities.
The judge emphasised, “You have this hanging over you to make sure you continue to engage with those support services.” He also imposed a three-month curfew with an electronic tag, running from 9 pm to 6 am, and ordered Healey to pay £340 in prosecution costs.
Anna Duke, defending, noted that Healey’s probation officer confirmed he has been working with support workers.
The judge revealed that the pre-sentence report showed that Healey’s fiancée’s father, who was terminally ill, had wished for the couple to go on holiday abroad.
Encouraged by this, Healey who had never travelled abroad before obtained a passport, and after his father's death, they travelled to Faro.
Judge Woodhall acknowledged Healey's long-term drug issues but praised his recent consistent engagement with community support services, describing his motivation to address his problems.
He also highlighted that Healey now has stable accommodation and strong family ties, assessing him as a low risk of re-offending.
