Former DUP leader calls for increase in sentence handed to Walker after sex offences

Former DUP leader calls for increase in sentence handed to Walker after sex offences

28 June 2023

FORMER DUP leader Edwin Poots has questioned the sentence imposed on former party colleague Billy Walker who avoided jail last week after admitting child sex offences.

Mr Poots has written to the Public Prosecution Service and Attorney General asking them to review the sentence handed out to Walker who admitted two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.

The Killyleagh man — who now lives in Blackpool — asked two teenage girls to send him pictures in their school uniforms, Downpatrick Crown Court sitting in Belfast was told last week.

Sixty year-old Walker was handed an enhanced combination order consisting of 100 hours community service and was also placed on probation for three years.

The court was told Walker posed as a 24-year old man and the girls, who stated they were teenagers in their conversations with him, were actually members of a paedophile hunters group acting as decoys.

Mr Poots said he was “appalled” Walker avoided jail and that the “punishment must be increased”.

Walker, who represented the Rowallane area on Newry, Mourne and Down Council, contacted what he thought were two teenage girls posing as a 24-year-old man.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Poots described Walker’s sentence as “incredibly light” and confirmed he has asked the Public Prosecution Service and Attorney General’s office, asking for the lenient sentence handed down to be appealed.

“A man in his 50s grooming teenagers is perverse, sickening and unacceptable. The punishment must be increased,” posted Mr Poots.

And Jonathan Buckley, one of the DUP’s Upper Bann representatives, shared Mr Poots’ initial social media post criticising the sentence, adding: “Agree entirely. A despicable act which must be condemned and called out by all. This is wrong on so many levels.”

Also last week, Mournes DUP councillor Glyn Hanna confirmed he wrote a character reference on Walker’s behalf. But he subsequently withdrawn the reference, saying he was “misled” by Walker.

Sentencing Walker, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC said that whilst there was no actual contact between Walker and the ‘girls’, his claim that he had no sexual interest in children “has to be viewed with scepticism”.

“There can be little doubt that the defendant was motivated by perverse sexual desires in engaging in what was deliberate sexual grooming,” he said.

Walker set up a fake social media profile in the name of Peter Patterson and initially contacted with someone he understood to be a 14-year-old girl on February 11 last year, when he sent her a Facebook friend request.

The former councillor sent her a picture of a topless man claiming it was him, suggested giving her £100 and told her “I bet you look stunning in your school uniform”. 

The contact then ended.

Around the same time, Walker made contact with a second decoy posing as a teenager. He sent her a friend request using the fake profile. Walker gave her his phone number and the chat moved to WhatsApp.

He suggested meeting up the following month and she was also asked by Walker to send pictures to him of her in her school uniform.

The matter was reported to police and when Walker was arrested, he admitted he set up a fake profile.

Walker told police he had no intention of meeting either of the girls and subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.

Noting Walker has amassed 34 previous convictions — a majority of which are linked to politically motivated protests — Judge Miller accepted there were no prior sexual offences on his record.

He also spoke of a character reference supplied by a DUP councillor and said “he obviously doesn’t know” Walker very well “or he wouldn’t describe him as a man of good character”.

Judge Miller said he had also considered defence submissions which set out Walker’s health problems and the impact his offending has had on him.

Addressing Walker in the dock, Judge Miller told him he had considered imposing a 12-month sentence.

He said that whilst there was no actual contact between Walker and the ‘girls’, his claim that he had no sexual interest in children “has to be viewed with scepticism”.

Judge Miller went on: “There can be little doubt that the defendant was motivated by perverse sexual desires in engaging in what was deliberate sexual grooming.”

He then imposed the enhanced combination order as a “direct alternative to custody” but warned Walker than any further offending or breach of the order would result in a return to court and the possibility of jail.

Walker was also made the subject of a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and will be on the Sex Offenders Register for the same period.