Man had photo of his own private parts

46-year-old Ivor Kissick of Coleraine Road, Portstewart, claimed he borrowed the phone from a female friend, who he helping out with an antiques business. And Coleraine Magistrates Court also heard that the woman has now offered him employment at a Bed and Breakfast.

Kissick was previously convicted of voyeurism and banned from having a camera phone.

At an earlier court he pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order by having an iPhone. The former bar manager admitted having the phone - capable of taking pictures and making videos - for four and a half months between November 30 last year and April 12 this year. A prosecutor said the defendant was banned from having a mobile phone, and he had been living with a friend in a B&B and Kissick said she lent him her phone.

When police viewed it they found a picture of what Kissick said was of his own private parts. Officers were concerned and he was arrested.

A defence solicitor said his client was not permitted to have a phone which could take photos or videos and said Kissick is “deeply concerned” about his court appearance and has “hardly slept” since the matter came to light.

The solicitor said that whilst it was quite clear Kissick had a phone, he was not using it for the purposes for which he had been previously been in court for.

He said a woman had befriended him after he left prison and “taken him under her wing” and most of the photos on the phone were of antiques in connection with an antiques business with which he was helping out.

The solicitor said the lady has now offered Kissick employment to help out at a B&B.

He said there was nothing of an “untoward nature” on the phone of the type of material Order was aimed at preventing. The prosecution lawyer accepted there was nothing of the nature involved in Kissick’s previous court appearance.

District Judge Liam McNally said he had considered immediate custody of five months, and said the purpose of the Order had been to stop a repeat of the serious offences Kissick had previously committed. He said the Order was breached by Kissick being in possession of a mobile phone, and he said the Prosecution accepted that there was nothing on it similar to the offences for which he was previously convicted.

Suspending a five months jail term for three years, Judge McNally warned Kissick if he breached the Order again he would be going to prison.

Outside court on Thursday, Kissick pleaded for the case to be kept out of the media and said: “I get a hard enough time without that there”