Northampton sex offender breaks court order by donating sperm to couple he met online


A Northampton man violated his sexual harm prevention order by donating sperm to a couple he met online.
Lee Darlington, 26, from Duston, was brought back to Northampton Crown Court while struggling to find employment and tried making money through sperm donation and handing out door-to-door leaflets.
He was jailed in 2016 for sexual assault on a teenage girl.
But he was brought back to court in April where he pleaded guilty to violating a sexual harm prevention put in place with his sentence.
In July 2017, Darlington took a job handing out leaflets door-to-door and did not tell his employer about his conviction. He worked for less than a day and later asked his employer not to pay him for it.
Later that month, Darlington accepted an offer of £10 by a couple he had met online to donate sperm as they were having trouble conceiving.
Both of these acts broke the conditions of the SHPO and he was brought back to court.
His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said: “If this had been a high-risk offender who chose to exploit the license he had to distribute leaflets to peer into people’s windows he would be going into custody.
“While these were further breaches of the SHPO, they do not carry in themselves a significant risk of harm.”
He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, where the judge said he could get assistance finding “legitimate work”.
Darlington had previously been sentenced to 16 months in a young offenders institution after he was convicted of having sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl in 2010.
For the offence in 2016, he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.