A SEX offender forced staff at two courts 45 miles apart, lawyers and a judge to make special arrangements for him by pretending to be wheelchair-bound, York Crown Court heard.

The construction of the 18th century Grade I courthouse at The Castle York requires defendants to go up two flights of stairs to get into the building and down a twisting flight of steps to the court cells.

So while the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty, QC, sat on the bench in Courtroom One in York, John Lewis Lyons, 66, sat in the dock in a wheelchair at Hull Magistrates Court  45 miles and an hour-and-a-half away by car.
The two were connected via a video link – and barristers for both prosecution and defence travelled from Leeds to Hull for the hearing.

Lyons had asked through his legal team for the special arrangements, claiming he could not get out of his wheelchair even for a short distance.

The judge told him if he had seen medical evidence before the hearing, Lyons would have appeared before him at York – as he had before a different judge at a previous hearing in January.

“I want you to be under no illusion, I do not believe, for a moment, you are confined to a wheelchair at all,” said Judge Batty. “I have read your doctor’s report which questions your need for a wheelchair and your behaviour has caused all manner of a carry-on.”

Lyons, of Sycamore Court, New Earswick, had pleaded guilty to sexual assault on the day the case was listed for trial at Leeds Crown Court – where it had been sent because the Leeds building has lifts and a ramp instead of steps to the main entrance.

He cried as he was given a 21-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does 20 days’ rehabilitative activities. He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely, barring him from contacting the victim in any way.

The judge told him: “She was in her own home. She had every right to feel safe. You sexually molested her in the most appalling way. It was deliberate, continuous and went on for a considerable period of time. You have come as close as anyone comes, in these courts, to going immediately to custody.

“If you breach this order and become a sex pest to this woman again, you will come back before me and I will lock you up.”

Prosecution barrister Michael Morley said Lyons, a household odd-job man, used his work to gain the trust of a woman in her own home and would often tell her “I want to sleep with you.” She would reply “In your dreams.”

On April 8, 2015, Lyons appeared at the woman’s home unannounced as she was at the kitchen sink, and appeared from behind to grab her breasts.

“She was shocked and taken aback,” said Mr Morley. “She told him in no uncertain terms to leave her alone. She shrugged him off.”

He tried to persuade her to let him see her naked, grabbed at her and exposed one of her breasts.

“She was saying: “No! Get off me!” He replied: “You like it, really,” the barrister said.

After Lyons left, the victim cried. She was in a state of shock and felt totally degraded. Following his arrest, Lyons told a police nurse he would “murder” the complainant. The nurse reported it to police officers and Lyons was convicted and dealt with separately of making a threat to kill.

Defence barrister Holly Betke did not give mitigation after the judge said he would suspend the prison sentence.