Lawyers for a convicted paedophile have been urged to treat a charge of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) by having contact with children as “folly”.
Charles Campbell (56) from Muckros Road, Kesh is accused of committing the offence on June 15.
A detective sergeant from the PSNI Public Protection Branch told Dungannon Magistrates’ Court the charge could be connected.
She explained police received a report from an off-duty officer that Campbell had been conversing with two female children outside a restaurant.
He was observed to put his phone, “up to their faces and film them, smiling as he did so”.
Campbell, who has convictions for voyeurism, installing equipment for recording, making and possessing indecent child images from February 2023, is currently subject to the SOPO which includes a ban on any unsupervised contact with children.
He was arrested and identified himself when shown CCTV footage, in which he was “clearly seen talking to two young females, one aged 10 and the other aged four. Another teenage girl was seated nearby. He used his phone to video the children and a small dog who was with them, and notably took a close-up of the four-year-old. He then tapped his phone and walked out of sight.”
Campbell accepted talking to the children and asked if he could take their photo to put on his Snapchat.
The mother of the 10-year-old told police Campbell had approached her earlier in the day and asked if he could take a photograph of her dog.
The child was “a bit perplexed but agreed”.
Her parents confronted him, asking if he had filmed her but he denied this, insisting he had taken an image of the dog which he sent to his daughter.
Objecting to bail the detective said, when previously dealt with, Campbell was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for three years and placed on the sex offender register for 10 years, “so this matter puts him in breach”.
Under cross-examination the officer confirmed Campbell provided the access code to his phone, and while it was difficult to say how long it will take to examine the device, “there is a relevant department to deal with it and it is anticipated this will be expedited”.
She disputed the incident happened late at night and into the early hours, rather it was around 6pm, and District Judge Peter Magill added: “I wouldn’t be expecting a 10-year-old and a four-year-old to be up at midnight.”
The defence argued bail could be granted with strict conditions, pointing out the defendant owns an engineering business and his employees are reliant on him, however, the judge said this could be addressed by having one of the managers take over.
Campbell, said the defence, accepted being at a bar and had consumed alcohol so “the court may be prepared to view this a folly with drink on board and I ask it is considered as such. An alcohol restriction could be imposed as a condition and that’s something he’d be happy to agree to … This could be a case that the prosecution see the image they may decide not proceed, although that may be a stretch.”
Judge Magill replied: “That is a stretch. There was contact with these children. It was on CCTV. The defendant is subject to a suspended sentence until 2026 and a SOPO until 2033. There is clear evidence of contact. This is extremely worrying given his convictions. The balance here must fall on the side of protecting children.”
Bail was refused and Campbell was remanded in custody to appear again by video-link on July 19.
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