Man forced to tell police 24 hours before he has sex despite being cleared of rape is named

Friday, July 15, 2016by:fettysam

Man forced to tell police 24 hours before he has sex despite being cleared of rape is named

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.

A judge will decide at a hearing next month whether to end the interim 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