Convicted child rapist was found living with a 16-year-old girl

A convicted child rapist who breached a court order designed to control his behaviour following his release from his original sentence has been sent back to jail.

Damien Minett was found living in the same house as a 16-year-old girl putting him in breach of a lifetime sex offenders’ registration order which banned him from living in the same property as any child under the age of 18 without permission.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that it was the seventh time Minett had broken the order since his released from a jail sentence imposed at Nottingham Crown Court in 2005 for rape of a boy under the age of 13.

Minett, 29, of Swallowfields Court, Skegness, admitted failing to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offender order.

He was jailed for 14 months.

Judge Simon Hirst told him: “This is your seventh breach of this order. You take the view that you can do whatever you like and this order does not mean a thing.

“At some point you might wake up and realise it does mean something.

“The only sentence I can pass is one of immediate custody. If you come back before this court for breach of this order again the sentence will go up and up.”

Jeremy Janes, prosecuting, said that the offence came to light earlier this year when police interviewed a 16-year-old girl about an allegation.

Minett turned up at the police station to act as an “appropriate adult” for the child and police then discovered she was living with her partner at the same address as Minett.

Further investigations revealed the girl had been living at the address for a fortnight after being allowed to stay because she was homeless.

Mr Janes said that Minett’s offender manager had made it very clear to Minett that he was not to live at the same address as any child but he had ignored the order.

Mark Watson, in mitigation, urged that Minett should not receive an immediate jail sentence.

He told the court: “At no point was the 16-year-old put at any risk.

“As a temporary arrangement the girl, who was under the age of 18 but over the age of consent and in a relationship, was living at the address.”

Mr Watson added “He’s inadequate but he is now in a relationship and has stability that he has not had in the past.”