Former serviceman Scott Robert Fitzgerald was jailed for three years and ten months on Tuesday by the Royal Court’s Superior Number. However, it emerged in court that concerning behaviour first came to light eight years ago.
Similar cases of jailed sex offenders being dealt with at parish hall inquiries for sexual offences in their past have also emerged in recent years. They include those of disgraced former school teacher Christopher Bacon and rapist Ian Bartlett.
Fitzgerald, a former St John Ambulance volunteer, sent Whatsapp messages to a teenage girl commenting, among other things, on how she looked in a bikini. The States police were made aware of the messages and ‘words of advice’ were issued.
Yesterday, the 41-year-old was jailed and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for a minimum of ten years after admitting one count of sexually touching a ‘very little girl’ and two counts of possessing a total of ten indecent images of children.
Now, in relation to allegations made against Fitzgerald in 2011, a force spokesman has said today, things could have been different.
‘The revisions to the Telecommunications (Jersey) Law since 2011 have enhanced the ability of the police to deal with cases similar to this. Were this specific case to have happened today then it may have resulted in a different outcome,’ he said.
After the allegations in 2011 came to light, Fitzgerald was immediately ‘dismissed by St John Ambulance as a volunteer’. David Le Quesne, the chairman for the Jersey branch, added: ‘We have had no further involvement with this man since then.
‘We wish everybody to know that St John Ambulance has rigorous safeguarding rules, which we ensure follow best practice and are rigidly enforced.’
In 2017, the JEP revealed that former school teacher and taxi driver Christopher Bacon admitted in 1985 that he had ‘got intimate in a mild sort of way’ with a teenage boy and they ‘groped each other’s private parts’. The then Attorney General Vernon Tomes ordered that he be dealt with at a parish hall inquiry – reserved for the most minor offences. He never worked as a teacher again and was eventually jailed two years ago for abusing boys he taught in the 1970s and 80s.
And Ian Stafford Bartlett, responsible for the worst case of prolonged sexual abuse against a single victim that the Island has ever seen, according to the police, was also dealt with at parish hall inquiry for earlier allegations. Bartlett was jailed for life with a minimum of ten years in 2015 but it emerged he had been dealt with at parish hall inquiry twice after allegations of sexual misbehaviour emerged. In one instance, he was alleged to have hidden in a bush near a school and performed a solo sex act.
A further 31 indecent images of children were found on a device belonging to Fitzgerald at his Army barracks in the UK after he was arrested in 2018. A total of 14 of those images fell into the second most serious category.
Evidence was also found of online conversations the 41-year-old had had with a paedophile group organising a ‘party’ with boys as young as seven. Fitzgerald had asked to watch. He, it was also heard, had been in conversation with a man and was asking him to abuse his wife and child on webcam.
Fitzgerald was not sentenced yesterday for those offences.
However, under Jersey’s new Sex Offences (Jersey) Law 2018, ‘sexual offences committed outside the jurisdiction may be prosecuted in Jersey in certain circumstances where the offender is habitually resident in Jersey’, a Law Officers’ Department spokesman said.
He continued: ‘The 2018 Law does not have retrospective effect, thus Article 40 applies to offences committed outside the jurisdiction after commencement of the 2018 Law, from 28 November 2018.’
The JEP understands that prosecutors could not be sure when the images were downloaded and thus were not sure whether they could bring charges against him in Jersey as, had they been downloaded before November 2018, the new law would not apply.
The images found in the UK were, instead, used to enhance the prosecution’s case and the JEP understands Fitzgerald could still face charges in the UK.
