February 2017 Repeat offender in court for failing to comply with a sexual offenders notification A repeat offender who was caught staying in a property with a person aged under 18 is back in court. Kristian Kirk, formerly of Oswaldtwistle, was made subject to police notification requirements for five years in 2015 after pleading guilty to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence and a separate offence of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He was given a 26-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, with a supervision and programme requirement. Under the notification conditions the 26-year-old was required to tell police if he was staying at an address where there was a person under 18 also residing. Burnley Crown Court heard how police later attended an address and found a person under 18 there. Kirk has admitted failing to comply with a sexual offenders notification. Joseph Allman, prosecuting, told the court: “When they arrived and asked him if he was alone he said no. “He gave a date of birth for [the person] which would have made them 18, however when [the person] then appeared it transpired from the date of birth [the person] was in fact [under 18].” Darren Lee-Smith, defending, said Kirk is ‘adamant he didn’t provide the police with an incorrect date of birth when they attended’. He told the court: “He realises he is in a very precarious position given his previous convictions and the suspended sentence order. There has been no breach of this particular suspended sentence order, even though he appears today in breach of the notification requirements. “He has completed the sex offender treatment programme and is now moving onto the second stage of that course which is a Better Lives programme.” Judge Beverley Lunt said it would make a ‘significant’ difference to his sentence as to whether he gave the police an incorrect date of birth. May 2016 Sex offender with festish for boys in white socks caught talking to 15-year-old on Grindr A SEX offender from East Lancashire with a fetish for boys in white socks is facing another date with a crown court judge after being caught in an online conversation with an under-age youngster. Kristian Kirk, 26, was previously snared by online paedophile hunter after he became involved in a sexually-charged conversation with what he thought was a 14-year-old boy. In the latest incident, Kirk was suspected of contacting a 15-year-old boy via the gay dating application Grindr and he was arrested by Lancashire Police at his home on Monday. Kirk, formerly of Oswaldtwistle but now living in the Pendle area, appeared before Pennine magistrates the following day and pleaded guilty to breaching the conditions of a sexual harm prevention order and the commission of an offence during the operational period of a suspended sentence. He was committed to Burnley Crown Court for sentencing, after a brief hearing, and will appear in the dock there on July 11. An order was made by magistrates not to disclose his new address after his family home was targeted by right-wing vigilantes following previous court appearances. Kirk, a former supermarket worker, must report to an East Lancashire police station twice a week before his crown court date. The online paedophile hunter was criticised by a crown court judge for his initial involvement with Kirk, a former University of Central Lancashire policing student, for his supposed interference in the administration of justice. Kirk was also involved in a second inquiry with North Wales Police last year though, where he had asked to join a teenage Snapchat conversation then asked a 15-year-old boy for nude pictures, including images of him wearing white socks. Last November Judge Newell, after hearing how he had been on a sex offenders’ treatment programme, gave him a 26-week suspended prison sentence, which Kirk is now in breach of, alongside two years probation supervision, for an offence of inciting a boy aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity. A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “Part of his sexual harm prevention order was a condition not to contact children who he believed were aged under 16. “He was arrested as he was believed to have engaged in a conversation with a 15-year-old boy on Grindr.” June 2015 Kirk has now been handed a three-year community order with supervision, ordered to attend the sex offender group programme and made subject to police notification requirements for five years. May 2015 Wannabe police officer with ‘sock fetish’ caught trying to meet fake 14-year-old boy for sex A WANNABE police officer was caught out in a sting set up by the self-styled Paedophile Hunter. Kristian Alexander Kirk, of Orchard Drive, Oswaldtwistle, admitted attempting to meet a fictitious 14-year-old boy for sex. He sent a series of sexual text messages to filmmaker Stinson Hunter – known as ‘The Paedophile Hunter’. The 25-year-old, who studied policing at the University of Central Lancashire’s Burnley and Preston campuses, could now face jail. Kirk pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence at Burnley Crown Court yesterday. The messages, sent between August 1 and August 25 last year, included requests from Kirk for Mr Hunter, posing as a 14-year-old, to send him intimate pictures. Judge Jonathan Gibson told the court that ‘all sentencing options remain available’ to him. In the texts, seen by the Lancashire Telegraph, Kirk also attempted to arrange to meet Mr Hunter in Oswaldtwistle, before describing a number of lewd acts and a fetish for ‘lads in white socks’. Mr Hunter stated that he was 14 at the start of the conversation on the mobile dating application Grindr, before Kirk requested his phone number and asked if he had other multimedia applications including Skype and WhatsApp. When Kirk asked Mr Hunter if he had ever done anything ‘dirty’, Mr Hunter replied: “I’ve never done anything like that with anyone tbh [to be honest] x.” Kirk then wrote: “Well you’re only 14 lol xxx.” Kirk went on to explain that he had just finished his policing studies at university and hoped to join a force ‘when they start recruiting’. When discussing where the two could potentially meet, Kirk said: “Bit awkward ain’t it being seen with you being 14 lol x,” and later described Mr Hunter as ‘sexy boy’. Mr Hunter was previously involved in the conviction of Accrington schoolteacher David Simpson, who believed he was meeting a 15-year-old girl for sex. He rose to fame after his self-financed vigilante documentary, The Paedophile Hunter, was screened in 2014. It won the 33-year-old and its director, Dan Reed, the Best Single Documentary category at the Royal Television Programme Awards. He has more than 570,000 Facebook followers and earlier this year scooped two BAFTAs. He reported Kirk to Lancashire police on August 27 last year. Kirk was initially charged with one count of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, but that count was deleted yesterday. The indictment to which Kirk pleaded guilty to read: “You initiated attempts to arrange and facilitate the doing of acts you believed Stinson Hunter would do, believing Stinson Hunter was a 14-year-old boy, which, had the said Stinson Hunter been a 14-year-old boy, would have involved the commission of offences of sexual activity with a child contrary to the Sex Offences Act 2003.” Kirk, who has no previous convictions and has not been accused of ever actually meeting an under-age person for sex, was supported by his family in the public gallery. Daniel Prowse, defending, said the online and text conversations were the only evidence in the case. Applying to change his client’s bail conditions, Mr Prowse said: “The defendant is 25-year-old and of previous good character. “He is employed in a Spar shop and needs to begin at 6.30am on Sunday, currently the only day he works, but might wish to begin at 6am during the week.” Judge Gibson allowed bail to be altered, meaning Kirk must stay at his given address between the hours of 11pm and 5am. Kirk is now due to be sentenced, pending a pre-sentence report, at the same court on June 26.