Sex offender`s failure to notify police on `draconian` order costs him his freedom

A serial offender banned from having sex without first telling police has been jailed – after having a one night stand with a woman he met in a pub. Geoffrey Ball was branded a menace to women after flouting a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), described by the judge as “draconian but necessary”. And at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday (January 18), Ball was handed a 16-month prison sentence after having sex with a 50-year-old woman he chatted up at a bar. The court heard that was enough to breach his order – and his barrister accepted he could not act like “any normal person” because of the restriction. Ball, 45, claimed he had no memory of having sex, but said if the forensic evidence showed he had, he would accept it. Prosecutor Joanne Kidd said in January 2015 he was made the subject of a SHPO, arising out of concerns being expressed as to his behaviour with local women. She added: “That order contained a clause which required him to inform his supervising police officer of meetings with women, and to disclose to that officer any relationships he was entering into, and also a requirement that he inform any woman who fell into that group as to his last sexual offending history.” Last August he met a group of people in Yates’s in Middlesbrough and stayed in their company through the course of the evening, returning home in the early hours of the following morning. “They went to her bedroom, and sounds were heard by the others indicative of sexual intercourse taking place during the course of the night,” said Ms Kidd. Ball has used a string of aliases in the past to keep his identity a secret, and has repeatedly breached court orders or licence requirements designed to protect women from him. These have led in the past to him being returned to prison – only to offend upon release. He also has convictions for robbery and burglary and impersonating a police officer, as well as sexual and indecent assaults on women in 1989, 2010 and 2015. Ball, who had previously lived in Middlesbrough, Guisborough and Redcar in north Yorkshire, has left a trail of victims in his history of offending – including one who attempted suicide. A prosecutor at an earlier hearing said he lied to his many victims, making up various stories including being a worker at the former steelworks on Teesside. He said: “He wants what he wants and he will try to get it. He will try to get it by force, in one case, and in others he gets his own way by charming the women.” Ball sparked a manhunt and public appeal after travelling around the country giving false names and failing to tell police where he was – in breach of the SHPO. Jonathan Harley, mitigating, said: “He certainly did not go out with the intention of entering into a relationship with anybody. He simply went out for some drinks. “He has got to get into his head and he has to understand that he cannot act in the way that any normal person not subject to a SHPO can act.” Judge Morris told Ball, who admitted a breach of the SHPO: “You must understand that you are becoming your own worst enemy. You must comply with these orders. “The fact you have flouted these regulations again and again needs to be brought home to you.” When the order was first imposed on Ball last year by District Judge Martin Walker sitting at Teesside Magistrates` Court he said the move was “draconian but necessary”. Judge Walker added: “It is important to protect the public. At the moment this man appears to be persistent and although there might be some gaps, he has not stopped offending since 1988. “I would normally like a time limit. I think this is the sort of case that unless he can show he is not a risk that the order should remain in place.” Ball`s case echoes that of John O`Neill, 45, from York, who was given a 24-hour notice period in which he had to inform police if he wished to have sex with a woman. However unlike O`Neill, Ball had a string of previous offences against women and was warned he must stay away from them unless he told them i