Homeless South Tyneside man with a ‘habit’ of breaching his sex offence order avoids jail

Stanley Riches, 51, convicted of rape in 2003 and currently sleeping rough in a tent, has taken steps to turn his life around, his latest court appearance heard.

Before borough magistrates, he pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

He did so by failing to inform police of his whereabouts on one weekly occasion earlier in November, as required.

His apparent lifestyle progress led to borough magistrates jailing him for 26 weeks but agreeing to suspend the sentence for a year.

Prosecutor Lesley Burgess said Riches has a habit of failing to inform police of his whereabouts.

She revealed previous non-compliance saw him jailed for 26 weeks in July, 15 weeks in April and 26 weeks last November.

He was also put behind bars for 24 weeks in December 2021 – and has seven other same breaches.

Riches was returned to court after being arrested on Tuesday, November 12, for failing to keep his weekly date with police.

Ms Burgess added: “The circumstances are straight forward. He must register every seven days if homeless.

“He last did so on November 4, thereby seven days was midnight on November 11. He should have gone back to register.

“The defendant was arrested and in interview he made admissions. He has 40 previous convictions from 91 offences.

“There are a number of like convictions where he has not adhered to the notification requirements.

John Williams, defending, said he had seen a marked improvement in Riches’ attitude to life.

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He said: “He accepts he should have signed on but didn’t. He’s homeless and living in a tent. He fully complied between September 12 and November 11.

“He says that on the day in question he had gone to his doctors for medication and his head was all over the place and he forgot.

“He signed yesterday and thought that would be the end of it. There’s been a significant change in his attitude.”

The Probation Service also said Riches’ attitude towards his work with them had seen “vast improvement”.

Riches must pay a £154 victim surcharge.