Updated: Sex offender played Santa at Carlisle church's Xmas party

Darren McGuinness, 48, who has a previous conviction for downloading sickening images that depicted the sexual abuse of children, also helped to organise a family Halloween party at the same church hall. 

At Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court, McGuinness, of Fairfield Gardens, Carlisle, admitted two allegations of breaching a sexual harm prevention order: one was committed on October 30 last year and the other on December 18 last year.

The prosecution came as more details emerged of the defendant's disturbing crimininal past - including one case where it was revealed that the defendant once wrote a distrubing fantasy about a relatioship with a 13-year-old girl. 

Prosecutor Malcolm Isherwood said the defendant’s offences were a breach of an order made in May of 2011 which was meant to prevent him from having unsupervised access to any child.

The sentence was part of his punishment for multiple offences of downloading child sex abuse images.

The wording of the first charge stated: “On Saturday, December 18, at Carlisle in the county of Cumbria, without reasonable excuse, [the defendant] did something, namely dressed up as Santa and handed out gifts to children inside a makeshift grotto at the Church Christmas party.”

At the time, said the charge, the defendant was aware this would bring him into contact with children that he was prohibited from doing this under the terms of the court order.

The second charge states that he breached his court order by helping to organise and by attending a family Halloween party on October 30.

As with the first charge, he was fully aware that children aged under 16 would be present at the party and that this was something he was prohibited from doing, the court heard.

Mr Isherwood told the court: “In the view of the crown, the defendant deliberately placed himself in a situation whereby he was going to come into contact with children under the age specified in the [court] order.

“He did so by attending a church and, while there, volunteering to work in the community kitchen without disclosing his conviction.

“He then offered to organise a family Halloween party at the church in October last year and in December he helped to organise and run a family Christmas party.

"This included him playing the role of Santa in a grotto. Both of these activities would clearly bring him into contact with children.”

Having heard those facts, District Judge John Temperley said that he believed the court’s sentencing powers were not sufficient and therefore the sentencing hearing should be at Carlisle Crown Court.

“You will get credit for your guilty pleas,” the judge told McGuinness.

The judge adjourned that hearing until May 13, when the defendant will be dealt with by a circuit judge at Carlisle Crown Court. In the meantime, the defendant was granted bail.

Records show that the defendant has previously breached his sexual harm prevention order a number of times.

In 2016, the News & Star reported that the defendant flouted his sexual harm prevention order by accessing the internet through his mobile phone when it had no police monitoring software.

In 2020, the defendant was again before a court for breaching his order. He had been allowed to use a computer when he attended a unemployed persons’ support group in Carlisle city centre.

The order was part of a sentence imposed for 11 offences of possessing child abuse images. After his last conviction for breaching the order, his defence lawyer told the court: “He used the computer for entirely innocent purposes.”

The lawyer said the defendant, who was planning a caravan holiday in Blackpool for his birthday, had been unable to get work “because as soon as he discloses his previous convictions" potential employers show that they are not willing to consider employing him.

Read more about this defendant's criminal past: Suspended jail for Carlisle sex offender.

In 2011, the News & Star reported the how McGuinness amassed a collection of indecent child images and penned sickening and perverted fantasies about an imagined sexual relationship with a child.

The text of our court report was as follows: 

A CARLISLE man who used his computer to download more than 100 indecent images of children wrote a series of disturbing stories fantasising about a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

Police raided the Aglionby Street home of Darren McGuiness after being tipped off by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency (CEOP).

Despite his stories describing a fictitious schoolgirl’s sexual behaviour with a man of his own age, McGuiness insisted he was interested only in adult pornography, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

McGuiness, who has lately been living in Milton, near Brampton, pleaded guilty at the city’s crown court to 11 charges of possessing child pornography.

Most of the pictures involved – 92 – were of level one, the lowest grade on the official five-grade scale.

But 18 were of level three and 11 were of level four, the second most serious level of depravity. Prosecuting counsel Charlotte Holland told the court investigations showed McGuiness found the pictures by carrying out internet searches on his computer.

She agreed with Judge Paul Batty QC that the pictures mentioned in the charges were only part of a “considerable amount of material” found at McGuiness’s home.

In mitigation, defence barrister Greg Hoare described the case as “a somewhat difficult and troubling one”.

He said that McGuiness now accepted that each picture he had enjoyed represented the abuse of a real child, though he had not realised that at the time. He said McGuiness had sought solace in such pictures because he “suffered from a degree of social isolation”.

Mr Hoare said: “He is anxious to try to do whatever he can to ensure that he takes whatever treatment he can to remedy the situation. He recognises that substantial steps need to be taken.”

He argued that jailing McGuiness would do no good, since any sentence would be too short for him to receive meaningful treatment.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Batty QC said that if McGuiness indulges in such disgusting behaviour in the future he will be jailed.

He imposed a three-year community order, with three years supervision, banned the defendant from ever working with children, and put him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years.