A CHILD sex offender has been banned from associating with 'lone males' after a court heard that he was the prime suspect in multiple male rape investigations.

In 2007, perverted Barrie Patrick O’Keefe, who at the time was in his early 30s, was given a ten-year jail term for raping a 15-year-old boy after he plied the youngster with alcohol.

A crown court judge also handed him a sexual harm prevention order which banned him from having unsupervised contact with any child.

But police chiefs this week went back to court to apply for an even tougher court order because, since his release in 2017, O’Keefe, now 47, has been named as the prime suspect in four separate rape investigations.

In each case, the alleged victim was a vulnerable young man.

None of the accusations resulted in a prosecution but that did not mean that the alleged victims' claims were not credible, Carlisle's Rickergate court heard. O’Keefe opposed the police application.

During a three hour hearing, Cumbria police barrister Steven Reed provided a catalogue of alleged - and in some cases accepted - events which senior police officers say justifies a new and tougher sexual harm prevention order.

The chronology of relevant events spanned more than ten years and included breaching the conditions of a sexual harm prevention order in 2019, for which O’Keefe was jailed for six months, and allegations that he raped four vulnerable young men.

One had learning difficulties, another suffered from autism, and a third alleged victim was alcohol dependent. One case was dropped due to 'evidential issues'.

In two other cases, after the initial accusations were made, the alleged victims felt unable to support a prosecution. In court, Mr Reed took evidence from O’Keefe’s Cumbria Police offender manager, Police Constable Chris Bardini.

The barrister asked what it was like to manage the defendant in the community. PC Bardini replied: “Mr O’Keefe is hostile to say the least. He refuses to accept that he is a registered sex offender. He doesn’t believe he is.”

Mr Reed asked: “Does he accept that he’s a rapist?”

The officer replied: “No. He refuses to engage… He has refused us access to his property on several occasions and will only speak to us in the garden, and on some occasions in his garden shed.”

This causes 'huge issues' with managing the risk posed by O’Keefe, he said.

When he is asked about his sexual interests, O'Keefe either refuses to speak or becomes 'agitated or aggressive,' said PC Bardini.

Police believe O’Keefe had secretly used online applications such as Grindr to seek out and make contact with vulnerable young males.

Explaining that O’Keefe was assessed as a 'high risk' sex offender, the officer said he believed the defendant used alcohol to render people vulnerable before committing sexual offences against them.

There was also concern that the defendant associated with other sex offenders, something the officer said was 'high risk behaviour.'

Given recent allegations, the original sexual harm prevention order was not sufficient to protect the public, said PC Bardini. Asked about the withdrawn rape allegations, the officer said this was not unusual.

“Is it unusual for someone to be named as a suspect repeatedly?” asked Mr Reed. “Yes – it’s very unusual,” answered the officer.

Tariq Khawam, for O’Keefe, who formerly lived in Denton Holme, Carlisle, said no weight should be given to the defendant’s association with other known sex offenders.

The lawyer told District Judge John Temperley that there was 'no reliable evidence' against O’Keefe. “It’s a number of allegations and that makes it more concerning, but it must be reliable evidence and in my submission it is not,” said Mr Khawam.

The lawyer also suggested that the order as proposed was 'unenforceable.'

Mr Reed said there was a “body of evidence” showing O’Keefe targeted and sexually abused vulnerable males – young men who did not know each other and who had independently made the same or similar allegations against the defendant.

The barrister said: “The risk he presents is ongoing and high. He raped a 15-year-old boy, and the circumstances were such that the risk is not going to go away.”

There was no plausible reason why any of the four men would make up the rape allegations, he added. O'Keefe was given the chance testify as part of his challenge to the police application but he chose not to do so.

District Judge Temperley said: “Since May 2019, the police have received four separate allegations of rape from four different males, and all were vulnerable in one way or another…

“While none of the allegations led to completed proceedings or a conviction, I know that none of the complainants were known to each other and the alleged offences were committed at various times and various locations, in both Carlisle and Newcastle.

“None had any obvious motive to lie and in each case the defendant did not deny being in their company, though he does deny sexual offending. The fact that there was no formal statement, or a withdrawn complaint, does not render their allegations unreliable.

“Victims of sexual offending find it difficult to pursue those allegations for a variety of reasons. But that does not mean the offences did not occur.”

The judge said that on the balance of probabilities he found that three of the alleged rapes relied on by the police did occur, though he made no finding on the fourth allegation. It was implausible that the three vulnerable males made up those allegations.

Approving the sexual harm prevention order, the District Judge said it was necessary to protect the public. “This defendant has demonstrated a propensity to target and sexually abuse vulnerable males for many years,” concluded the District Judge.

The order bans O’Keefe from having contact with any "lone male" unless that person is aware of the order and restrictions it contains. It also severely limits the defendant’s internet use and bans unsupervised contact with children.

O'Keefe's address has previously been given as Denton Street, Denton Holme, Carlisle, though recently he has lived in Kilmarnock, Scotland.

The allegations and events that helped Cumbria Police succeed in its application for a tough new sexual harm prevention order: 

  • June 2012: While out of jail on licence, O’Keefe was found in a park with a vulnerable female; he was also warned after he approached teenagers at a local riverbank and made sexualised comments. He was recalled to prison.
  • May 2018: After his release the previous year the year earlier, O’Keefe was arrested on suspicion of outraging public decency following a report from a seven-year-old girl that somebody matching his description approached her to asked inappropriate personal questions.
  • May 2019: O’Keefe was accused of raping a vulnerable young man – vulnerable because he suffered autism and used alcohol. This allegedly happened in Newcastle.
  • December 2019: The defendant was arrested for breaching his Sex Offender Registration requirements. He was jailed for six months.
  • January 2020: A man with learning difficulties who was given alcohol alleged he was taken by O’Keefe’s to his home and raped. The alleged victim did not want a prosecution to continue.
  • January 2020: Another male alleged that O’Keefe raped him, but prosecutors dropped the case because of “evidential issues.

Read more: Cumbria Police highlights renewed campaign to tackle sexual offending