Sex pest jailed for offering sexual favours on Fab Swingers app

Stephen Owen, aged 60, was jailed for three years and two months at Amersham Law Courts after admitting to multiple crimes.

The sex offender, who is from Kidlington, Oxfordshire, had been serving a 10-year sexual harm prevention order for a previous offence of producing indecent images of children.

The order made it illegal for him to communicate using a fake name and banned him from using any application or platform with a private messaging feature without permission from the police.

Stephen Owen was sentenced at Amersham Law Courts on Friday (PA)

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The court heard how Owen had registered on the application Fab Swingers under the fake name Paul Dab, and posted a public message asking “Anyone want BJ?”.

According to prosecutor Naomi Perry, when Owen met with a man who responded to the message for a “sexual encounter”, the man was so concerned by Owen’s behaviour that he phoned the police.

Ms Perry told the court that during their encounter, Owen asked the man if he wanted to see sexual images of a child – which the man refused, prompting him to contact the authorities.

At the sentencing hearing on Febraury 11, the court also heard how Owen breached the order on multiple occasions between June 6 2021 and October 2, 2021, using a fake name on the Spare Room website and sending inappropriate messages to a woman who had contacted him about renting a room.

Owen also breached the order by downloading and using multiple apps with private chat features, including Fab Swingers, Tinder, Facebook, Snapchat and Badoo.

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At his sentencing at Amersham Law Courts, Owen pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

In mitigation, defence barrister Iwona Beaushe pointed out that Owen had completed the rehabilitation aspect of his community order and performed well during the unpaid work he had to undertake for his previous offending.

However, Judge Catherine Tulk was incensed when she was informed that Owen had been committing these offences at the same time as when he was engaging with his rehabilitation.

Judge Tulk said: “What is really troubling em is that his probation report is really positive. He was a star worker.

“But all the time he was doing that he was offending.

“While on the face of it he was complying with, when on looks at it it’s clear it was not genuine.”

Judge Tulk sentenced Owen to 22 months in prison the four breaches of the sex harm prevention order, and gave him an additional 16 months when she triggered the suspended sentence he had been serving when he committed the breaches

In total, Owen will serve 38 months in prison.

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