A sex offender previously banned from court because of his drunken behaviour has been sentenced after failing to tell police where he was living.
Robert Walton, 31, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offenders’ register.
His address can not be reported, as his solicitor said he’d suffered serious attacks after details of his whereabouts were published.
Walton was in 2012 placed on the register for seven years after assaulting a teenage girl on a bus.
He grabbed the 16-year-old around the waist and sexually touched her while she was with her boyfriend on the top deck.
Then he committed a further offence when he failed to register his new address at Huddersfield Police Station on June 6.
Walton, who is subject to the requirements until April next year, lost his tenancy and was homeless for a couple of days.
But when he found new accommodation in the Huddersfield area he failed to tell police within three days as required.
Walton then moved to another address after being threatened, a previous hearing was told.
He was excluded from the court building by security on one occasion after turning up drunk.
At his sentencing hearing his solicitor Carl Kingsley successfully argued that the Examiner should be prohibited from reporting where he is living now.
He said: “The defendant’s previous address had to be withdrawn from him for his own safety and for the safety of residents.
“By the time he came to court again he had a different address in Edgerton and, subject to that address being reported, he was assaulted in the town centre and had his nose broken.
“He’s now at his final accommodation and the prospect of being reported concerns him.
“It will result in potential serious injury to him and that will lead to an interference with the administration of justice and render any community order impracticable.”
Despite representations from the Examiner that a ban on reporting a defendant’s address should only be imposed in exceptional circumstances, magistrates granted the order prohibiting publication of his address under Section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act.
They said they were concerned about possible vigilante attacks on Walton and believed that he was in real danger.
The court was told that he had a problem with alcohol, crack cocaine, paranoia and depression.
Mr Kingsley said: “He failed to tell police about his temporary accommodation and it appears that it was alcohol taking over and that’s the reason we suspect that he’s failed to do what he’s supposed to do.”
Magistrates sentenced Walton to a community order for six months with 10 days of rehabilitation activities including the Action for Change programme, looking at positives in his life including future goal setting.
He will have to pay £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.
