Sex offender who dressed as schoolgirl to talk to kids is jailed

Sex offender, 55, who dressed up in school uniform and asked three girls under 16 if they liked his tie is banned from dressing like a schoolgirl – and jailed for 16 months

• Convicted sex offender has been jailed again for breaching his prevention order
• Mark Nicholson dressed in school uniform and sat outside waiting for girls
• He approached three girls under 16 and asked if they liked his tie, court heard
• Also invited to young runaways to his home and gave them cider and cigarettes
• He was jailed for a further 16 months and told he must not dress as a schoolgirl 

A convicted sex offender has been jailed again after dressing up as a schoolgirl in order to talk to pupils and plying two young boys with booze.

Mark Nicholson, 55, sat outside Blessed Trinity school in Burnley, Lancashire, dressed in the uniform of a white tie, blazer and a skirt.

A court heard he tried to engage in conversation with three girls, aged between 10 and 15, last November by asking if they liked his tie.

Preston Crown Court was also told in May this year, he met two runaway teenage boys who’d been reported missing from their care home.

He took them back to his house where they smoked cigarettes and he gave them a cup of cider.

Kathryn Johnson, prosecuting, told the court: ‘The police received a call from the safeguarding lead at Blessed Trinity to say three female children from the school, aged between 10 and 15, had seen a male sat outside on Queen Victoria Road dressed in a school uniform that matched theirs.

Mark Nicholson, 55, sat outside Blessed Trinity school in Burnley, Lancashire, dressed in the uniform of a white tie, blazer and a skirt

‘He was arrested the following day at his home address and the school uniform was recovered by officers from his bedroom.

‘The defendant was interviewed the same day and told police he didn’t speak to the girls but accepted that he had been wearing the uniform, saying that he wears it for comfort.’ 

Judge Stephen Unsworth KC jailed Nicholson for 16 months for twice breaching his sexual harm prevention order.

That order was in place after Nicholson was jailed for 18 months in 2019 for 60 child sex offences. 

The judge banned Nicholson from wearing items of clothing relating to a girl’s school uniform and ordered him to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely. 

The incident took place outside of Blessed Trinity College in Burnley, Lancashire (pictured)

He said: ‘This is a worrying picture that’s presented to the court and is extremely worrying for the parents and carers of these children.

‘If there’s any repeat of this behaviour you can expect lengthier periods in prison – you must stay away from young people and must stop this behaviour.’

Defending Nicholson, Anna Chestnutt said his behaviour ‘had no place’ and he would ‘not be repeating it’.

In respect of the offences in May, Ms Chestnutt said her client encountered the boys on a bus and it was them who spoke to him first.

She said: ‘Nothing sexual took place in the hour they spent at his home address.’

Police were alerted to the incident involving the two young boys after an employee raised the alarm that they were missing from their residential care home.

When the boys eventually returned home, they revealed they’d met the defendant and asked to go back to his home, and he agreed. 

‘They stayed around an hour and then left and returned to Blackburn,’ the court heard.

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