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Child sex groomer warned he’s going to jail over latest court order breaches

Gary Savage (36) admitted breaching the terms of his court-imposed Sexual Offences Prevention Order

Yesterday at 13:40

A convicted child sex offender was today warned he is facing a certain jail sentence after he admitted harassing a woman and breaching a court order imposed to protect the public.

Gary Savage (36), formerly from Ballynahinch, Co Down, but now with an address in Laurel Avenue, Coleraine, appeared in the dock at Downpatrick Crown Court to admit two charges.

Savage admitted breaching the terms of his court-imposed Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) on dates between May 2022 and January this year by having a child under the age of 18 in a car he was driving without a reasonable excuse or the prior approval of his designated risk manager.

Savage also admitted harassing a woman between the same dates by pursuing a course of conduct which amounted to harassment.

It is the second time in less than two months that Savage has admitted breaching his SOPO, an order designed to protect vulnerable, potential victims from further offending by the sex offender.

Last month, at Antrim Crown Court, Savage admitted breaching the SOPO on July 16 last year by having child with him in a vehicle without reasonable excuse on the Drumagarner Road in Kilrea.

In that case, the court heard how the convicted sex offender was spotted with a 13-year-old in the passenger seat of his car.

A detective constable told the court that “three different parties have made statements saying they saw him with the boy”, revealing that Savage had been a category-one sex offender until reclassified as category two just over two years ago.

The SOPO was originally put in place in 2017 when Savage was sentenced for sexual grooming and sexual communication with a child. Since then, he has breached the order multiple times.

In court today, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC said he would liaise with the judge in Antrim about the best way to deal with the case but warned Savage, whom Judge Miller remanded back into custody, that “a custodial sentence is inevitable”.