A REPEAT sex offender who defied a court order by spending time alone with a 14-year-old boy has been jailed for 21 months.
Stephen Edward Facchino, 40, appeared before the Royal Court yesterday having admitted two breaches of a restraining order imposed in 2020.
The court heard that Facchino’s offending was “not an isolated incident, but rather an entrenched and deeply worrying pattern of sexual behaviour”.
The latest breaches centred on gatherings at the Havre des Pas Lido and later his own flat.
An employee at The Lido contacted police in October 2025 after noticing Facchino regularly sitting on the roof area while groups of children – some in school uniform – joined him.
“On several occasions, it appears the children receive a message or signal, after which they put their hoodies up and head up the first set of stairs to the same rooftop area where the male sits,” she said.
She added that it was “super odd they all wanted to chill outside on the roof in the wind and rain”.
A regular visitor at The Lido also provided a statement in relation to the “strange behaviour” of Facchino.
On 17 October 2025, the employee sent police a screenshot of a video she had recorded which captured Facchino on the roof alongside a group of young people, including a 14-year-old boy.
Just days later, the boy’s mother alerted police after her son admitted to his cousin that he had been meeting up with an older man that “gave him things”.
The boy had claimed that he had been meeting a friend from school called ‘Jasmin’ at Havre de Pas, but his parents become concerned when he returned home under the influence of cannabis.
The boy’s father followed him to a town address and saw him enter.
When police knocked, Facchino denied the teenager was there and claimed he had been asleep. Moments later, the boy emerged from inside the flat.
Facchino denied doing anything inappropriate and said that the boy would “vouch for me that way”.
The man invited the police officer into the flat, where he became “visibly agitated” and “struggled to speak”.
The officer was then made aware that Facchino was a registered sex offender with a restraining order, and asked if he had been alone with the teenage boy.
Facchino nodded his head and the police officer arrested and cautioned him for breaching his restraining order.
It later emerged that he had a sex toy concealed beheath his clothing while he was with the boy, which the court heard was evidence that there was likely a sexual motive.
During police interview, Facchino told officers that he was going to “lie in the corner and go to sleep and it was going to be a ‘no comment’ interview”.
The court heard that Facchino has previous convictions dating back to 2008 for possessing indecent images of children.
In 2018, he was jailed for attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. In 2020 he received six years’ imprisonment for breaching earlier orders and making indecent images.
The 2020 restraining order expressly prohibited him from being alone with any child under 16.
Representing himself via video link, Facchino told the court he was “sorry this has happened again” and suggested he may have ADHD. He said it would be “fairer” for him to receive a shorter sentence.
Crown Advocate Lauren Taylor sought 24 months’ imprisonment but the court imposed 21 months – 15 months for the first breach and 21 months for the second – to run concurrently.
Delivering the sentence, Deputy Bailiff Mark Temple told Facchino: “You were alone with a 14-year-old child for a period of time in your home in private, you were wearing a sex toy at the time – and that strongly suggests that this offending was sexually motivated.”
The Deputy Bailiff commended the Lido staff member and the boy’s cousin for raising their concerns. He was presiding with Jurats Karen Le Cornu and David Le Heuzé sitting.
