45-year-old former English literature student, John O’Neill, who is
legally obliged to tell police he is going to have sex 24 hours before
the act, despite having been cleared of rape, was on Thursday named.
John was made subject to an interim Sexual Risk Order (SRO) with a list
of conditions which included him reporting to police before having sex
The
single father-of-two threatened to go on hunger strike in protest at the
Sexual Risk Order (SRO) claiming the police order doesn’t allow him
live a normal life and hinders him from dating properly.
Mr O’Neill, of Baker Street, York, was tried for rape; at a first trial
the jury was unable to reach a verdict and he was cleared at a retrial
at Teesside Crown Court in November.
North Yorkshire Police then applied for an SRO with a number of
conditions, one of which was a requirement for him to inform police 24
hours before he has sex with a new partner.
Mr O’Neill, who admits an interest in sado-masochism and used to visit a
Fifty Shades of Grey-style fetish club, appeared at York Magistrates’
Court on Thursday for a brief hearing and the district Judge Adrian
Lower lifted a reporting restriction which prevented the media from
identifying him.
order or make it permanent, which Mr O’Neill strongly opposes.
“Obviously you don’t want your face plastered across the press because
people presume guilt, they are not interested in the details, an
accusation is the same thing as a conviction for some people,” he said
to Mirror UK. But on the other hand people need to know that this kind
of thing happens.
“Without the 24 hours’ notice before sex clause I don’t think this case
would have attracted much attention at all. From that perspective thank
God they did put it in. People can now see the police do this. I don’t
have a life, I cannot work, I cannot have any form of relationship, it’s
absolutely ridiculous.”
The woman who accused him of rape said she was bitten and scratched, but
Mr O’Neill denied the bite and said the scratch came during a massage
after consensual sex.
He said he had no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket”.
Other conditions include him having to hand over the PIN for his mobile
phone to police, and not to use internet-connected devices which cannot
be later checked by officers.
Sexual risk orders can be applied to any individual who the police
believe poses a risk of sexual harm, even if they have never been
convicted of a crime.
Source: Mail Online