​Convicted sex offender abandons appeal against sentence and begins four-month prison term

​At the County Court of Appeal, sitting in Downpatrick on Friday, Tiernan Padhraig Lawless was set to lodge an appeal against the sentence handed to him in Downpatrick Magistrates’ Court earlier this year.

Defence solicitor John Keown confirmed however, that the 23-year-old is formally withdrawing the appeal so Judge Sandra Crawford could affirm the sentence.

Imposing the four-month sentence, the judge said it had been a “well advised decision” by Lawless given the fact that under her powers, “I could have increased the sentence”.

Earlier this year Lawless, originally from Castlewellan but now with an address at Glenfarne Place in Larne, entered a guilty plea to a single count of breaching the Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) on April 21.

The court heard that having been arrested in relation to another matter, the convicted sex offender “was found to be in possession of a mobile phone”.

Under the terms of his SOPO, Lawless has to seek permission from his designated risk manager to have any phone and in this instance, “that was not the case”.

Jailing Lawless, District Judge Trevor Browne highlighted that the defendant had a multiplicity of breaches in his previous offending, declaring that, “the court has run out of patience”.

“He just hasn’t been listening to what he has been told,” the judge said. “He has repeatedly breached this order and it is there for a reason – it is there to protect the public.”

Imposing a four-month sentence, Judge Browne told Lawless he had “completely ignored it [the SOPO] and you are going to pay the price”.

The SOPO was imposed in May 2022 when Lawless was handed a 20-month sentence for having sex with a 14-year-old girl whom he groomed.

He had entered guilty pleas to one charge of sexual grooming, four counts of sexual activity involving penetration with one girl and one charge of sexual activity with a child under 16 in relation to her friend, committed between November 4-7 2020.

Downpatrick Crown Court heard then how Lawless had been exchanging text and social media messages with the teenage schoolgirl, as well as numerous FaceTime calls with her.

“She formed the view that they were, in her words, ‘good mates’,” said Judge Geoffrey Miller KC when he was jailing Lawless, adding that on October 16 he asked her to “come for a buck”.

Four days later, due to concerns the victim’s mum had “about the contact with him,” she told him during a FaceTime call that her daughter was just 14-years-old and “told him not to contact her”.

Despite that, on November 5, the teenager told her parents she was staying at her friend’s house but instead, the girls met Lawless in a park in Castlewellan and he bought them Buckfast and Dragon Soup [an alcoholic drink].

With her friend having gone home, the girl was reported missing in the early hours and when police eventually found them, she denied there had been any sexual contact.

Once home, however, the 14-year-old told her mum “she had had unprotected sex under the influence of alcohol” and also that she had performed a sex act on Lawless.

The only time she was upset, the court heard, was when Lawless kissed her friend and even then it was because “she liked him”.

Arrested and interviewed Lawless largely gave “no comment” replies to police questions, even when forensic DNA evidence and the “hundreds” of messages were put to him.

In addition to the SOPO, he is also on the police sex offenders register for 10 years.