Paedophile ‘lied on form to get volunteer job at Headingley’

David Hemsley was given the chance to work as a volunteer “meeter and greeter” at the club on 10 occasions after he ticked the box on his application form saying he had no previous convictions.

The 49-year-old, of Union House Lane, Queensbury, near Bradford, actually had a series of child porn offences dating back to 1999 and just a few days before he submitted his application form to the charitable Yorkshire Cricket Foundation had appeared in court on charges of breaching his existing sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).

That order was made in September 2011, along with a three-year community order, after Hemsley started a cyber-sex relationship with a 15-year-old girl in the Far East.

Bradford Crown Court heard today how Hemsley’s past was only discovered after another volunteer raised concerns about him and a Google search revealed some of his previous criminal behaviour.

When Hemsley was questioned about his application he claimed to have ticked the wrong box, but he accepted that he had not mentioned the volunteer work to the officer monitoring him under the SOPO.

Prosecutor Andrew Horton said Hemsley had worked as a volunteer at Headingley Cricket Ground on ten occasions between May 16 and July 25 this year.

Hemsley was jailed for a total of 33 months after he admitted four breaches of the SOPO by taking up the post at the cricket ground and accessing Facebook when he was prohibited from doing so.

Barrister Adam Walker, for Hemsley, said his risk of offending increased when he suffered from low moods and he said his client had genuinely wanted to go to the cricket and the volunteer role would allow him free access to games.

Mr Walker suggested that a suspended prison sentence would be a productive outcome even though the probation service had indicated that no further treatment or rehabilitative orders were available.

“It will test his assertion that he can control his urges and remain offence free,” submitted Mr Walker.

But Judge Jonathan Rose said it was quite clear from Hemsley’s previous convictions, the reports about him and the current offences that he was “an entrenched paedophile”.

“You are, and are likely to remain, an entrenched paedophile for some time,” said Judge Rose.

The judge said because the courts had recognised in the past that Hemsley was “infused with a paedophilic frame of mind” they had made repeated efforts to help him address those issues.

“You have blindly refused to accept the help that has been given,” said Judge Rose.

“The explanation that it is low self esteem that drives you towards this sexual offending is in my view no explanation at all.”

Judge Rose said Hemsley knew full well that he would not have been given the post at the cricket ground had he not lied on his application form and said the offences were committed while Hemsley was on bail and subject to the community sentence.

The judge revoked the community order and imposed a six months prison sentence for the offences of making and distributing indecent images of children.

Hemsley was also sentenced to a further nine months in jail for breaching the SOPO by accessing Facebook and an extra 18 months in prison for the breach related to his work at the cricket club.

The judge imposed a new lifetime SOPO on Hemsley and he will also have to register again with the police as a sex offender following his release from prison.

Detective Inspector Chris Gibson, from Leeds District Safeguarding Unit, said: “The decision of the court to impose a lengthy prison sentence should send a strong message to those on the sex offenders register of the need to abide by the orders and restrictions imposed on them.

“West Yorkshire Police actively monitors those with prevention orders against them and any breaches will be dealt with robustly by the courts.”