An Ealing police officer "escaped" being sent to prison after admitting to doctoring the sex offenders' register.

PC Sean Fahey, 53, was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years, after admitting to signing the sex offenders' register to show that a pervert who had disappeared was still attending his appointments.

The officer, who was part of the Jigsaw Team in Ealing, was responsible for keeping an eye on around 50 sex offenders in the area.

In September of last year he was "struggling" to keep up with the workload when one man, known as "X", suddenly vanished, Southwark Crown Court heard.

He had no idea that the man had returned to Afghanistan and the offender could have been prowling the streets.

Rather than report the breach, Fahey completed the register to show the man, convicted of sexual assault and ordered to sign on for 10 years, was still regularly turning up.

Judge Michael Gledhill, QC, told him: "Nobody knows better than you why such criminals are put on the sex offenders' register, namely for the police to be able to keep a watchful eye on them and to make sure you know, you the police know, where such a criminal is and to ensure as is humanely possible that they do not commit further offences. "

"It doesn't bear thinking about"

He added: "You had no idea where he was.

"Your personal view was he was at low risk of re-offending.

"But what on earth would have happened, I ask rhetorically, had he reoffended, committed a serious sexual assault against a young person for example, and when he was arrested it was found he had been signing on for three months?

"It doesn't bear thinking about."

Fahey, who admitted a single count of misconduct in a public office, told the court he joined the Met in 1983, posted to Chelsea Police Station, as a uniformed response officer.

Around five years later he was designated a supervisor in the control room before moving to Ealing in September, 2000.

He spent another two years in uniform there before a stint in CID, the domestic violence unit and the last seven in the Jigsaw Unit.

The court heard his initial role was as an intelligence officer responsible for collating information on the borough's 300 or so sex offenders before he was shifted to carrying out visits to approximately 50 of those.

"It was a unit I initially wanted to go on and I was extremely keen to start on there but as my role changed I think that perhaps my interest in the unit changed as well, it diminished," he said at the last hearing.

"Increasing pressure"

Ben Brandon, defending, said Fahey was under "increasing pressure."

He explained that Fahey "felt driven to continue" working well after his 30 years' service in order to stay in the police accommodation where he and his son were living at the time.

"All he would have needed to have done is report the matter to a sergeant and have it dealt with as a breach," he said.

"It would have involved more work, but he didn't do that.

"He registered this offender as low risk.

"He had come across him before on the streets of Southall where this defendant works and he just made this colossal error of judgement – all the more extraordinary given his career."

The court heard Fahey "took, in his own words, the obviously foolish and wrong decision to cut a corner – a corner he regarded at the time to be a low-risk corner to cut."

Mr Brandon also confirmed that the officer would lose his job and may even see his pension hit by virtue of his conviction.

Prosecutor Alexander Agbamu told the court "X" was convicted in 2011 for a sexual assault for which he was jailed and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

'"But on 20 September last year X left the UK for about three months," he continued.

"In the meantime, the defendant, who had responsibility for X's reporting, showed him to be registering on a weekly basis during his absence overseas.

"The man did return to the UK three months after his departure and the UK border authority contacted the police and communicated the fact that a sex offender who was required to register had now returned.

"This caused the police to look into their own records which showed that during his overseas absence, he appeared to be registering on a weekly basis – a fact which could not possibly be correct – and then they conducted a further investigation.

"They saw that the records had recently been interfered with and that the files which showed weekly registration had been deleted."

Falsifying records

During an initial interview in April of this year, Fahey admitted falsifying the records.

"In terms of why, or motive as to why the defendant did this, he said that he considered 'X' to be at low risk of re-offending," said the prosecutor.

Citing the officer's claim not to have been covering anything up, he added: "The prosecution say the reverse is true."

The court heard that Fahey later accessed the police database in order to trawl through court documents being generated as part of the ongoing investigation into his conduct.

He perused the case summary, charge sheet and a list of exhibits but was not subsequently charged in relation to that unauthorised access.

Judge Gledhill said: "On two different days you accessed the relevant files or documents concerning your own investigation on the police computer.

"You are not charged with that but it seems to me to be an aggravating feature of this offence – that you were quite happy misusing the police computer, in different ways, but misusing it nevertheless and you knew perfectly well you were misusing it."

However, citing a psychologist's report deeming Fahey to be suffering from a moderate adjustment disorder and the 'dramatic' consequences for his family should he be jailed, the judge suspended the sentence.

"I hope you realise you have escaped going to prison by a hair's breadth," the judge added.

"But for Mr Brandon you would be serving 16 months so you have him to thank."

Fahey, whose address was given as Ealing Police Station, west London, was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 150 hours' unpaid work and made to pay £450 prosecution costs.

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