Sheffield sex-offender is jailed after making sexual comments to a 14-year-old work colleague

Doncaster Crown Court heard on December 7 how Alun Sutton, aged 44, of Hazlebarrow Grove, at Jordanthorpe, Sheffield, had originally been given a custodial sentence for attempted child communication offences and he had been made subject to a restrictive ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

But prosecuting barrister Emily Hassall said Sutton got a job as a head chef at a Derbyshire pub after he was released from custody on licence and he failed to declare his conviction and his employer also failed to do a background check and the defendant came into contact with two female kitchen porters aged 15 and 14.

Ms Hassall added that during a Facebook communication from the 14-year-old girl who had been checking if she needed to work, Sutton had replied making a reference to oral sex and suddenly recalling her young age.

The judge – Recorder Alex Menary – said: “Your employer failed to carry out a DBS check. Nevertheless, you went to work there as a head chef. At that time you were the first point of contact for kitchen staff and the offences arise in this way.”

Sutton initially claimed to police he had not known the girls were aged under 16 and that he had not gained any sexual satisfaction during the Facebook communication because he said he is gay.

However, the defendant, who has nine previous convictions for 22 offences, pleaded guilty to two breaches of his SHPO relating to the undeclared and unsupervised work-related contact with the two girls who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

He also admitted a further breach of his SHPO after the sexual communication via Facebook with the 14-year-old girl, as well as admitting engaging in sexual communication with a child.

Benn Robinson, defending, said Sutton had been in a long-term relationship with his former husband and when that relationship had become difficult he had started drinking alcohol and that seems to be the foundation for his offending.

Mr Robinson added that Sutton had also worked a difficult shift and had just discovered his motorbike had been stolen so he had been drinking and was upset when he spoke to the 14-year-old girl over Facebook.

He said: “He started drinking throughout the course of the afternoon and by the time the evening comes around he is significantly inebriated.”

Recorder Menary highlighted that Sutton had already been convicted and sentenced to custody in May, 2020, for attempting to incite a sexual act with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

The court heard Menary’s ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order also prohibited him from having unsupervised contact with children aged under 16.

He told Sutton: “You were in a position of being head chef at the ‘hotel’ and these were young people and as pot washers they were at the very bottom of the kitchen hierachy.”

Recorder Menary sentenced to Sutton to two years of custody and stated that the length and terms of defendant’s SHPO would continue as originally outlined.