Landmark register victory for child sex offender

George St Angeli, 71, was jailed for five years at Liverpool Crown Court in 1993 for sex offences against two young girls.

He was released on parole in May 1996 and signed on to the Sex Offenders’ Register in September 1997 – but on Wednesday at Leeds Magistrates’ Court he became the first person in England to win the right to have his name removed from the register.

Police, who opposed the appeal, will no longer be able to track his movements and campaigners have hit out at the ruling, which they warned could open the floodgates to similar appeals.

In February 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that rapists and paedophiles must have the right to appeal to be removed from the national sex offenders’ register if they have been released from prison for 15 years or more and can prove they are no longer a threat to children – a ruling which sparked national outrage with Prime Minister David Cameron saying he was “appalled”.

District Judge Christopher Darnton told St Angeli: “I am satisfied that the order has now served its purpose and I cannot see any benefit in it remaining.

“If the order is not removed in this case in what cases would it be removed? Because (Mr St Angeli) fits the conditions just about in every single regard.”

St Angeli, who had previously served in the military as a warrant officer and lives in Leeds, applied to be removed from the register in September last year but West Yorkshire Police refused.

During the course of the appeal hearing, St Angeli told the court that as part of his registration he was visited once a year where police checked his circumstances were the same.

Andrew Garthwaite, for West Yorkshire Police, the respondents to the appeal, told the court St Angeli was 51 when he was convicted of offences against two under age girls in 1992.

Mr Garthwaite told how one of the girls had been aged nine when St Angeli’s offending started, and the crime continued over a five or six-year period.

“You were given trust over that child and you abused that trust,” said Mr Garthwaite. “You were an experienced man who should have known better. Why didn’t you realise at the time that what you were doing was wrong?”

To which St Angeli, taking the witness box, replied: “I have discussed this with the probation officer and it’s something that I can’t actually tell you. It just seemed right at the time.”

Deputy Chief Supt David Knopwood, from West Yorkshire Police, acknowledged this was the first appeal against a decision by the force not to lift a registration requirement.

Asked what factors were relevant in its having made the decision not to allow St Angeli to have his name removed from the register, he cited the fact that he now lived alone, that he had a car and was mobile, and his age at the time of offending.

But St Angeli’s solicitor, Nicholas Clough, said he thought police had denied St Angeli’s application because they did not want the responsibility of such a decision.

He also asserted that being on the sex offenders’ register did not “serve any purpose”, as he was only visited once a year for a “general chat”.

St Angeli, who told the court he and his wife are still married but live apart, said after the judgment: “Obviously I am relieved. This will give me the freedom to travel if I need to”

Claire Lilley, from the NSPCC, said: “Our view remains that adults who seriously sexually abuse children should stay on the offenders’ register for life as you can never be sure they will not commit further offences.