RAPIST WITHHELD ADDRESS TO HIDE PAST
A RAPIST deliberately kept his new address from police in case his wife found out he was on the sex offenders register.Gary Norman had served just two and a half years of a six-year sentence for rape when he was released from prison in July 2001.
The then father-of-one had been convicted in January 1999 of attacking a 44-year-old woman in Crown Street.
Upon his release he was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and tell police whenever he changed addresses.
But Warrington Crown Court heard on Friday how Norman, now 37, moved out of his parents' home in October 2005 to get married and spent almost two years at a new address unknown to the authorities monitoring him.
Steven Hoolohan, prosecuting, said it was only when officers made an unannounced visit to Norman's parents' last February they discovered he no longer lived there.
'The police were immediately given a new address for him,' Mr Hoolohan said.
'He told them he left his mum's when he married and had not contacted them because he didn't want them to intervene.' Natalia Cornwall, defending, said her client had wanted to put his past behind him, move on and make a fresh start.
Asked by Warrington Recorder Bryan Cummings if Norman feared there would be spot visits from police which would lead to inevitable questions from his wife?, Miss Cornwall said yes, adding: 'His wife, who sits in court today, is now fully aware of the facts of the original case.' Norman's wife found out on New Year's Day, two months before the police's visit.
'She found some paperwork and he came clean and told her everything,' Miss Cornwall said.
'There was a brief period of separation but they have since been reunited.' Asked by Mr Cummings why Norman did not tell the police then about his new address, Miss Cornwall said he had been forced to return to his parents' home and had not been sure if his wife would take him back.
Sentencing him, Mr Cummings told Norman: 'You are fortunate we live in a society where people like you get a second chance.
I have no doubt the effect on your victim will be life-long.
Your prison sentence has passed.
For two years you showed contempt for the requirements of the law.
By rights you should go straight to jail but I am persuaded that it is in the public interest that your marriage and family stability shouldn't be disrupted by sending you to prison.' Norman, of Villars Street, was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, six months supervision and ordered to do 80 hours unpaid work.
