DISGRACED NEWCASTLE CHURCH TREASURER JAILED FOR CHILD SEX CHATS AND FRAUD
A thieving church treasurer was caught trying to communicate sexually with a child in a sting by his daughter and her friend.To the outside world, Stephen Lo was a family man and churchgoer who was trusted to look after the finances of a North East church.
But in a shocking breach of trust, the 54-year-old helped himself to more than £7,500 belonging to the church in a blank cheques scam.
And as if that wasn't despicable enough, he was snared by his university student daughter and her friend having sex chats with what he thought was a child.
Now his fall from grace is complete after he was locked up.
Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said: "During the annual accounts meeting in March 2024, it became clear that the defendant was not going to have the accounts ready as some of the figures were not matching up and it was not clear who some of the payments had been made to.
"By this point, Ms Bagnall and another vicar had concerns that the defendant had been taking money from the church.
She had already been mistakenly copied into an email thread in which the defendant had refused to provide the accountant with some relevant details for a previous year’s accounts.
"Following a meeting, Ms Bagnall decided to take the chequebooks and other material from the defendant in order to assess the figures in detail.
She noticed that four cheque stubs were missing from one chequebook and five from another.
"She phoned the bank and was advised that the cheques with the missing stubs had been paid into the defendant's account." When Ms Bagnall and her colleague told Lo about the discrepancies, he claimed that some cheques had been paid twice due to companies such as Npower claiming they had not received payments.
Ms Bagnall contacted Npower, who said that they had received the original payment and denied requesting that a further cheque be sent out.
Mr Wardlaw said; "The defendant informed Ms Bagnall that he had also been on the phone to Npower, and they told him they had mistakenly cashed in both cheques and would refund the second payment.
When Ms Bagnall requested that he forward her the email, she noticed grammatical errors which led to her thinking that the defendant had constructed the email himself." Only when Ms Bagnall told Lo that she had spoken to the bank, who told her the missing cheque stubs had been paid into his account, did he admit what he had done and say he was sorry.
Mr Wardlaw said: "The defendant said he had lost his job and did not want to tell his wife.
"Over a period of four months, Lo, of Rothbury Terrace, Heaton, Newcastle wrote out nine cheques to himself totalling £7,663.17 In a victim impact statement, Ms Bagnall said: "This has impacted the church in a practical sense as he has stolen more than half of the money of the church and we recently went into overdraft and had to take money from another account.
This has also had an impact on the people who attend church as they have lost their trust in the church." Lo's wife separated from him in May last year after learning of the allegations that he had defrauded their church.
In September 2024, she informed him she was in a new relationship and Lo stopped contact with her and their children.
The court heard that in September 2024, Lo's daughter, a university student, was scrolling through her account on TikTok when a video containing an inspirational quote popped up on her page.
She noticed it had been posted by her father.
Mr Wardlaw said: "She was curious about her father being on TikTok and noticed that he was following a lot of young females, ranging from girls wearing school uniforms to women in their 20s." She confided in her friend about her concerns and they decided to change the profile name of the friend's TikTok account and pretended she was a 14-year-old girl called Katie.
Both Lo's daughter and her friend were behind Katie's communication with Lo.
After Katie commented with a heart on one of the quotes Lo had posted, he requested to follow her.
She accepted and followed him back.
He then initiated conversation by sending a waving hand emoji.
Katie told him she had been to school and when he asked her if she was in a relationship, she said she had recently split from her boyfriend.
Lo asked to swap numbers and the conversation moved to WhatsApp and they spoke on the phone.
He said he wanted to take her on holiday but was worried what her mother would think.
Katie then told him she had lied about her age and she was actually just 12.
Mr Wardlaw said: "The defendant told her he was 53 years old and that age did not matter and he was happy to continue talking to her.
She told him about a fragrance she liked from Victoria's Secret and the defendant asked if she liked the lingerie in that shop.
"The defendant also asked Katie her bra size and suggested meeting up in the next couple of weeks and he would bring her a thong.
After the calls, the defendant and Katie switched to messaging on Instagram.
"She posted a photograph on her story, and upon the defendant's request, she sent him some more photographs.
The defendant said she was gorgeous, and her breasts looked bigger than the A cup she had claimed to be.
In one of the photographs, Katie was hugging a teddy bear, and the defendant said “Aww that is so cute.
Wish it was me”.
"The defendant then asked Katie if she felt comfortable seeing more photographs and if she would do the same.
Katie told him to go first, which is when the defendant sent her a photograph of his penis, followed by the message “now u”.
Katie made the excuse that her mum had come into her room and blocked the defendant on Instagram." On October 6, Katie noticed that Lo had tried to contact her on TikTok.
She decided to post a photograph which suggested she was actually 8 years old, specifically of a balloon with the number 9, captioned “can’t wait for my birthday” and “9 going on 19”.
Mr Wardlaw said: "The defendant responded with a shocked face emoji, but continued to exchange messages with Katie, asking why she had lied about her age and saying “I’m happy, if you are happy with it”.
He asked if she could call him, but Katie gave the excuse that she was with her mum.
After this, contact between the defendant and Katie ceased." Lo's daughter told her mum, who told her to tell the vicar, who contacted the police and he was arrested.
Lo was made subject to an interim sexual risk order.
In May this year, he was sentenced for eight breaches of that order and three breaches of interim notification requirements.
He was sentenced to a community order.
For the latest offences, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, breaching an interim sexual risk order and failing to comply with notification requirements.
He was jailed for two years and three months and must sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.
