A former Blackpool man who tried to blame an imaginary twin, who didn't exist, for his sexual offences, has been jailed.
Police received a report in 2024, that Andrew Sullivan had breached his existing Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), by being in contact with young children.
When the parents of one of these children had concerns around previous offences, Sullivan told them that it was his twin brother who had committed the offences and had since committed suicide. The parents researched the excuse, finding that the twin did not exist, and it was Sullivan with the SHPO and previous conviction. They then reported it to police.
Officers conducted enquiries and found that whilst being in contact with one of these children, a young boy, he had sexually assaulted him.
As part of our enquiries, Sullivan’s phone was forensically examined. On that phone, police found 1346 illicit images of children. 701 of these images were graded as ‘Category A’, meaning the worst possible grading. All of the 1346 files were videos.
Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, Sullivan, 32 and from no fixed address, was charged with three counts of Sexual touching of a male child, causing a male child to engage in sexual activity, possession of indecent images of children, and breach of a SHPO.
He was jailed for 12 years and will be requires to sign the sex offenders register for life. He will also be subjected to a lifelong SHPO. The conditions of this include prohibiting him from having unsupervised contact with children and limiting his access to the internet.
Sullivan was also sentenced for rape of a child under 13 and sexual assault of a child which took place in the Kent area in 2007.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said: ‘’Sullivan is a despicable individual who committed abhorrent crimes against children. He believed he was being cunning, hiding his previous convictions and lying to facilitate his access to children. Thanks to the inquisitive nature of the parents, his lies were uncovered and began to unravel. He will now serve a custodial sentence for his actions both in Kent and Lancashire.
‘’The victim has shown an incredible sense of bravery throughout the proceedings. Hopefully, they can now being to move forward in their lives knowing that Sullivan is behind bars.
‘’If you have been a victim of a sexual offence, please come forward, and report it to us. We will listen to you, we will investigate, and we will do all we can to get you justice.
‘’You can report to us on 101.’’
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