South Tyneside sex offender given jail warning after breaching order

Stanley Riches, 48, failed to inform police of his latest address and did not tell them he was spending time sleeping rough.

Riches, of Greenlands, Hedworth, Jarrow, is required to tell officers of his whereabouts under the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act.

South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard he is subject to the act’s terms for life, but no details of his rape sentence were revealed.

At his latest court hearing, District Judge Zoe Passfield reminded him it was his third breach of the act.

Jailing him for 24 weeks but suspending the sentence for a year, she said: “If you breach this requirement again, you will go to prison.”

Prosecutor Paul Anderson said: “Effectively, it’s failing to comply with the order.

“He’s got that from 2003 for rape and it’s a life notification. He is meant to tell police if he changes address.

“Police went to his last known address in Gateshead a number of times. He wasn’t there.

“He was arrested and asked about it, he said he knew what the requirements were.

“He said he had been living at a lot of different addresses and had been of no fixed abode several times.

“He hasn’t kept police informed as he is legally required to do. It’s a little bit of a flagrant breach.”

Riches pleaded guilty to one charge each of failing to comply with the notification requirements by not informing police of his new address and of not informing them he was homeless.

Alaister Naismith, defending, said: “He says he was homeless for about a month and not the three or four months stated.

“He says he’s fallen back into drugs and alcohol and had other things that were occupying his mind and hadn’t taken the time to tell the police.

“There’s been other offences but nothing of a sexual type.”

Judge Passfield jailed Riches for 24 weeks for each offence, to run concurrently, and imposed a tagged eight week, 7pm to 7am curfew.

Riches must also pay a £128 victim surcharge and £85 court costs.