Eighty-year-old Leeds sex predator ordered to face up to being a paedophile

A perverted and "lonely" 80-year-old who approached a young girl on a Leeds street has been told to "face up to his sexual interest in children".
By Nick Frame
Published 25th Apr 2023, 16:30 GMT
Updated 25th Apr 2023, 17:01 GMT
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Perverted pensioner John Francis Heany asked the nine-year-old to lift her top up to show him her naked body in 2020 as she played in the street.

Heany denied any wrongdoing but was convicted after a trial of inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.

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Judge Tom Bayliss KC handed him a suspended sentence at Leeds Crown Court today, but told him: “It was for your sexual gratification, I’m quite sure of that. Children should be free to play outside and not be exposed to sexual predators like you. She should be able to view adults as people who care and protect them.

Heany narrowly avoided an immediate jail sentence, but was told he mist face up to being a paedophile.Heany narrowly avoided an immediate jail sentence, but was told he mist face up to being a paedophile.
Heany narrowly avoided an immediate jail sentence, but was told he mist face up to being a paedophile.

"You are attracted to young children. You do not accept that. The public needs protecting from people like you, but you are a lonely and unloved 80-year-old man and immediate custody will undoubtedly have an impact on you.

"You have come close to going to prison today, you minimised this and tried to blag your way out of it. You have got to recognise that you have an interest in children that you have to deal with. The sooner you face up to what you have done the better it will be for everyone, including you.”

The court heard that Heany, a retired coal miner and lorry driver, had approached the girl before as she played in the street with a friend, and asked them if they wanted to go and live with him, thinking they were homeless.

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Judge Bayliss did not consider it as grooming behaviour but described it as “opportunistic”.

Mitigating, Giles Grant said Heany lives an “isolated lifestyle” in a one-bedroom council flat on Spen Crescent, West Park, has no contact with his family, and has been barred from the pubs in his local area.

Mr Grant said: "As he tells me, he lives like a loner, and has the same routine every day.”

Judge Bayliss gave Heany a two-year sentence, suspended for two years, put him on the sex offenders register for 10 years and gave him a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, banning him from any unsupervised contact with children under 16.