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A housing association is facing questions over why it employed a convicted rapist who was out on licence from prison.
Ian Mycock was employed by Homes Plus this summer, within months of his release after three and a half years of a seven-year sentence.
The 39-year-old attacked a woman as she slept in bed next to her two-year-old son. His victim, Samantha Key said she was sickened to learn Mycock had been working for the social landlord in what is understood to have been a role supervising a team of maintenance staff.
StokeonTrentLive has heard from tenants who say the sex offender had visited their homes in the course of his work.
And Homes Plus bosses and the Probation Service are now facing demands for answers as to how the situation was ever allowed to happen.
The housing association, which is responsible for over 19,000 properties in Staffordshire and Shropshire, says that Mycock is no longer working for it, and that it will be beefing up the checks it does on all employees.
But the incident has raised questions about how robust its policies and procedures were prior to employing Mycock, who started working for the social landlord around a month ago.
His employment came to light when a Homes Plus worker known to Ms Key contacted her to tell her someone had been asking after her family.
Mum-of-five Ms Key, who has waived her right to anonymity as a victim of a sexual offence, said: “One of two things must have happened: either he’s not disclosed that he’s a sex offender because they’ve not asked or he’s not told them, and they’ve not done any kind of checks on him; or someone has thought it acceptable to send a rapist into people’s homes. Either way it is totally unacceptable.
“Where is the Probation Service in all this? Are they just taking the word of a sex offender that he’s declared his conviction to an employer? How can that be right?”
Mycock, who is from Stafford, was jailed in 2019 for the rape of Ms Key. She said he and his partner had been among a group of friends who had visited her home one day in August 2018. She said Mycock and his partner stayed overnight, and that she awoke in the early hours to find him sexually assaulting her in the presence of her sleeping toddler son.
As part of the conditions of his release in February, he is banned from entering Stone, where retail worker Ms Key lives and where Homes Plus manages properties.
StokeonTrentLive knows of three tenants of the housing association who have claimed Mycock has been in their properties in the Stafford area. One of them described Mycock arriving in a white van along with another male member of staff to assess work that needed to be done.
The tenant said she was now “very nervous to let anyone in”.
As well as his conviction for rape, for which Mycock will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life, he also has a now spent 2017 conviction for being caught in possession of two bags of cocaine worth around £100.
It is not clear whether Homes Plus asks applicants to declare if they have unspent criminal convictions, and the law makes clear that the burden is on the employer to ask the question, rather than on the applicant to volunteer the information.His rape conviction will never be legally spent.
But if an applicant is asked, they must tell the truth about any unspent convictions.
StokeonTrentLive has found that with roles currently available at Homes Plus, applicants are asked to apply online by submitting a CV and cover letter. Some job specifications mention there will be a need for a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check, but others do not. StokeonTrentLive has been unable to find evidence of any information on the Homes Plus website and vacancies portal about the declaration of criminal records or any request for them to be declared.
Homes Plus would not tell StokeonTrentLive whether it had asked Mycock whether he had a criminal record, or whether he volunteered the information.
StokeonTrentLive understands the Probation Service was aware of his employment, and that it was approved by a supervisor.
If an offender doesn’t seek approval, they risk being recalled to custody.
But there is no requirement for the Probation Service to check whether a sex offender or other convicted criminal it is supervising has declared convictions.
A probation supervisor will “make a judgement about approving any employment to ensure it does not undermine public protection”, according to guidance.
Sex offenders can be breaking the law by even applying for certain protected roles that involve working with children and vulnerable adults. And Homes Plus says that up to now it carried out DBS checks on staff who have “significant contact with vulnerable tenants”.
Ms Key said while she welcomed plans to toughen up procedures, she believed the employment of Mycock showed the housing association’s policies, and those of the Probation Service, had not been robust enough.
She added: “I can’t believe that it’s a question of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ even where employing sex offenders is concerned.
“And it’s incredible that no-one in the Probation Service seems to have asked whether he had told Homes Plus that he was a convicted rapist on licence, and whether they were okay with that.
“If he was going into people’s homes at all, then there’s every chance he was coming into contact with vulnerable people. And what about the duty of care to other staff working at Homes Plus? I understand some of them are livid they were working alongside a rapist and didn’t know it.”
As of this week, Mycock is no longer employed by Homes Plus, whether he resigned or was sacked has not been confirmed.
Generally, if an employee hasn’t been asked about unspent criminal convictions, they can only be sacked when one comes to light if the offence is relevant to the job they are doing.
They might also be sacked if employing them risked serious harm to the employer’s reputation.
Les Clarke, executive director of housing and care at Homes Plus’s parent company Housing Plus, said “immediate steps” were taken once the allegations came to light, in order to “safeguard our customers and colleagues in connection with this matter”.
He added: “We are deeply sorry for any distress or anxiety caused to customers and offer our sincerest apologies to anybody who has been affected.
“Housing Plus Group has procedures in place to deal with situations of this nature and they have been implemented as a matter of urgency. The member of staff is no longer working for the organisation.
“Housing Plus Group requires DBS checks for staff who have significant contact with vulnerable tenants and our intention now is to extend this to all roles where there is any contact with customers.
“We will be doing this retrospectively for all existing staff who do not already have DBS clearance.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Offenders on licence are subject to robust risk assessments before they can undertake work and must abide by their strict licence conditions – which if broken could see them returned to jail.”