Kurtis Reid
Yesterday at 16:45
A former DUP councillor has been disqualified from serving in local government for five years after he was caught in a sting by a paedophile hunter group.
William Walker, a former member of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, was sanctioned following an adjudication hearing today.
Last year Walker was sentenced to 100 hours’ community service and three years' probation after admitting two charges of attempted sexual communication with a child.
The NI Local Government Commissioner for Standards has now ruled on the case.
Standards commissioner Margaret Kelly ruled that Walker (61) had breached the Local Government Code of Conduct for Councillors by “bringing his position as councillor and his council into disrepute.”
Walker admitted both charges of attempted sexual communication with a child after he posed as a younger man and asked "children” to send him pictures in their school uniforms.
However he had actually contacted members of a paedophile hunter group acting as decoys. He was later suspended by the DUP.
Last June, he was handed an enhanced combination order consisting of 100 hours' community service and three years' probation.
The judge said at the time: "There can be little doubt that the defendant was motivated by perverse sexual desires in engaging in what was deliberate sexual grooming."
Walker also had to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years.
The standards commissioner said today: “When interviewed as part of an investigation by the Deputy Commissioner, the former councillor acknowledged he had not only let himself down, but also his colleagues within the council.”
At the adjudication, Ms Kelly said it was “beyond doubt that a member of the public, knowing all of the relevant facts in this case, would reasonably consider that the former councillor's conduct was such that it brought his position as a councillor into disrepute.”
Stating that Walker had shown “he was not fit for public office”, she believed it was appropriate to apply the maximum sanction available to her which was to disqualify him from holding the position of councillor for five years.
by bigbellybomac
1 comment
Dirty Jeffrey smh