Locations
Juliet Street, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63
Description
A mother was shocked to find out her partner was a convicted sex offender.
Karl Everiss had assured the woman he had no previous convictions and had never even been arrested before she let him meet her children. She had no idea he had been to prison for sexual activity with a child until the police came to her and broke the news.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Everiss was jailed for four years in July 2017 for four counts of sexual activity with a child. He was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.
In September this year, police carried out a home visit on him and found he had been using an alias of "silver fox" on Facebook, a name he had not registered with police as he was supposed to.
Following that, police made further inquiries and discovered Everiss had been in a relationship with a woman in Ashington. They went to her home and she said she had been in a relationship with him for around 12 months and that he had been staying there two or three times a week.
She also confirmed that her children had been present on some of the occasions he had been there. His contact with the children put him in breach of his sexual harm prevention order.
Albany Kidd, prosecuting, told the court: "She said after three months she let him meet the children after asking him if he had any previous convictions. He told her he was of good character and had never been arrested and was not that kind of person.
"Her children don't permanently reside there but they had been present on numerous occasions at the same time as the defendant, although they have never been left alone with him. However he did stay overnight while they were there."
The woman said Everiss was asleep upstairs and when police went up, they found him lying on the floor and he appeared to be trying to hide.
Everiss, 53, of Juliet Street, Ashington, who has 28 previous convictions, including two previous failures to comply with the sex offender notification requirements, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with the sex offender notification requirements and failing to comply with the sexual harm prevention order.
Jailing him for two years, Judge Tim Gittins said: "It's clear from what she had to say that she had started that relationship with you and allowed you to meet her children only on the understanding you were of good character. So there was a degree of deceit and manipulation by you.
"There is no evidence of harm here, beyond, no doubt, the awful sense of the reality hitting (the woman) and her children when it transpired what your true character was, when the police notified her of the circumstances of your previous conviction."
Helen Towers, defending, said: "His greatest mitigation is his early guilty plea, entered at the first opportunity." She added: "He didn't have a huge amount of contact with the children and there's no allegation of any untoward behaviour."