Record details
A high-risk sex offender with a long history of targeting lone females resumed offending after moving to Carlisle and changing his name.
The case of 42-year-old Grant Huddart, formerly Grant Percival, whose victims have included children, has drawn criticism from national campaigners calling for stricter controls on sex offenders.
A News & Star investigation revealed that Cumbria Constabulary is supervising dozens of convicted sex offenders who have changed their names, allowing paedophiles like Huddart to restart lives without others easily discovering their past.
At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Georgia Kennedy-Curnow detailed Huddart's February offense. He arrived in the city after serving time for sexually assaulting a young Kendal woman in June 2024, where he gained her sympathy by claiming to be suicidal.
In Carlisle, the victim—a young bar worker—was not assaulted, but Huddart's actions mirrored his prior crime. On February 23, while she collected glasses, he stared at her and asked: "Excuse me – can I ask you a question?" Then: “Would you care if I killed myself?”
Concerned, she offered tea. He asked if she hated him, if he was good-looking, and said he wanted to kill himself. He called her beautiful, adding: “I’d really like to say what I’d like to do you.” She declined. Before leaving, he requested a cuddle; she alerted police.
The court heard Huddart's 25 prior offenses, including breaches of sexual harm prevention orders and sex crimes:
- 2003: Indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl walking home from school.
- 2004: Sexually assaulting another 14-year-old in an alleyway.
- 2011: Offering a 14-year-old money for sex.
- 2011: Fixating on a female bus driver, staying aboard five hours and recording her.
- 2012: Sending a malicious or menacing message.
- 2014: Approaching a 13-year-old, claiming suicidality, and asking for hugs.
- 2018: Grooming an online female he believed was 15.
- 2024: Assaulting a 20-year-old in Kendal, lying about being a grieving father whose 18-month-old daughter died.
Defending, Clare Thomas said Huddart accepted responsibility, despite a probation officer's view otherwise. “He was consuming alcohol for the first time in a number of months,” she noted. He progressed in Lancashire supported housing but moved to Carlisle's John Street hostel when it ended. Local authorities deem him too "high risk" for accommodation in the next 12 months.
His sexual harm prevention order, barring approaches to lone females, left him feeling hopeless and lonely, Thomas said. Verbal abuse followed local press coverage of his 2024 case; he sought a Carlisle ban for a fresh start elsewhere.
Judge Michael Fanning addressed Huddart's complaints about press coverage and orders increasing isolation: “But your past interactions with women demonstrate that you seem to be incapable of forming a relationship in an appropriate way at all."
“So far as the reporting is concerned, the public, and in particular females who are vulnerable and who are alone, are entitled to know that you pose a risk to them.”
The judge said press reporting on his "predilections and location" is justified; anonymity would enable more offending. He jailed Huddart for 18 months.
A new indefinite sexual harm prevention order prohibits approaching female strangers, except inadvertently, for goods/services, or in therapy.
A News & Star FOI request showed Cumbria Police supervising 48 sex offenders who changed names in the last five years, costing as little as ÂŁ15. Numbers rose: 15 in 2023, 12 in 2024, four so far this year.
In December 2024, 932 sex offenders were supervised in the community; by July 2025, it was 939—up from under 800 in 2020-2021. Most stem from convictions; others from civil orders like sexual risk orders.
Emily Konstantas of The Safeguarding Alliance welcomed government plans but urged more:
"The ability for registered sex offenders to change their names without proper monitoring remains an open loophole, one that has been exploited, is being exploited, and will continue to be until it is fully closed.
"It enables offenders to evade vital checks and places vulnerable children and adults at significant risk.
"While we welcome the Government’s recognition of this issue through the Crime and Policing Bill, the proposed reforms do not go far enough.
"Legislative change must be robust, enforceable, and capable of addressing both future and past exploitation of this loophole.Â
"When someone sexually abuses a child or an adult, the victim’s rights must take precedence. Survivors cannot erase their trauma with a simple name change, and neither should an offender be able to erase their identity or their past to avoid accountability.
"We need a joined-up, mandatory system that ensures any name change by a registered offender is immediately flagged and shared across all relevant agencies. Anything less continues to fail the very people this system is meant to protect.
"We will continue to campaign for Della’s Law [an abuse survivor] as long as this loophole remains a risk."Â
Labour MP Sarah Champion said:
"Across the country sex offenders are changing their names to avoid detection or to frustrate the justice system. This legal loophole makes us all more vulnerable and needs to be closed.
"Successive Ministers have recognised the threat of sex offenders changing their name, but the solutions they offer require the abuser to do the right thing - which seldom happens."
The Crime and Policing Bill requires sex offenders to notify police of name changes a week in advance; police can refuse if needed for public protection.
For details on reforms—and why they won't apply to all offenders—see the government's Crime and Policing Bill summary.
England and Wales have over 70,000 registered sex offenders in the community, up 52% from 2014.
Della's Law, partly enacted, aims to prevent registered sex offenders from changing names to evade detection.
