By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:58, Wednesday, 17 October 2012

A former religious education teacher has been given a community order after he breached an order that prevents him from having contact with children.

Donald Hunt

Related: Dangerous paedophile had Cumbrian school pupils helping him on market stall

Magistrates heard how 58-year-old Donald Hunt had worked alongside primary school pupils on a stall at a farmers’ market.

This put him in breach of a court order which specifically forbids him from contacting children, imposed in 2006 after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy while he was a teacher in Lancashire in the 1980s.

Hunt had denied the breach offence, claiming he had no idea children would attend the village hall event.

Hunt, once described by a judge as a “dangerous paedophile,” claimed he would never have agreed to take part in the farmers’ market if he had known the children would be there.

But at his trial last month, Sheila Daniels, headteacher Home St Cuthbert’s Primary School, Mawbray, Maryport, contradicted his claim.

She told the court she had told Hunt what the event would involve, explaining in detail that it was an “exercise” for the children to learn about selling goods and speaking to customers and cashing up after the market.

During the market event, Hunt was working on behalf of the Lakeland Cheese Company and advertising and selling their produce.

He said he was there with another person, but children did help out on his stall during the day, and this breached his sexual prevention order, said prosecutors.

After delivering their verdict last month, magistrates described key parts of his evidence “inconsistent” and “implausible” and noted that prosecution witnesses gave “credible evidence”.

In court yesterday, Hunt’s defence lawyer Geoff Lockerbie said that his client, of Brown Bank, Gosforth Road, Seascale, had now lost his job.

His work was terminated because of the publicity surrounding this case, although the company already knew about his previous conviction, the court was told.

After reading background reports on Hunt, magistrates sentenced him to a 24-month community order, with Probation Service supervision throughout that period.

He must also attend a sexual offender’s treatment programme for nine months, and pay court costs of £450.

At the time of his original conviction in 2006, the judge told him he has a “dangerous paedophile,” who had tried to bluff and bluster his way out of being found out.

Hunt’s sex crime came to light while he worked at Whitehaven School but the abuse allegation led to his immediate suspension and later dismissal.

It later emerged that in October 2000 Hunt was given a formal warning while working at Whitehaven School after he approached a 12-year-old boy and spoke to him about underwear and modelling.

First published at 12:48, Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk