Judge warns Antrim man over alleged sexual communication with child: Arrest warrant possible

A JUDGE has warned that if an Antrim town man, who is accused of attempting to have a 'sexual communication' with a child, does not attend court next month there could be an arrest warrant.

John Mark Carlisle (55), of Meadowlands, is charged in relation to January 22 last year.

The details of the charge are that 'being a person aged 18 years or over, for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification intentionally attempted to communicate with (a male name), a person under 16 years, the communication being sexual or intended to encourage the said juvenile to make a communication that was sexual, and you did not reasonably believe that (the named child) was 16 years or over'.

The defendant faces a second charge that on May 17 last year he was in possession of an 'extreme pornographic image'.

The defendant had been in the dock at Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena on May 20 this year, in connection with the charges and the case was adjourned until July 1.

At Tuesday's Court a defence barrister said the defendant was not present.

District Judge Nigel Broderick said:

"He was told to be here".

The barrister replied:

"Apologies Your Worship, I wasn't aware of that".

The judge said the accused had been present at the previous court and added:

"He was in the dock and I told him to come back or I would issue a warrant for his arrest. He is charged with attempted sexual communication with a child and there is no reason why he can't answer his bail is there? Did somebody tell him, 'Forget about what the judge says, don't come back'?"

The case was passed for the barrister to find out why he was not present.

Later in the court it was said the defendant was on holidays "in Croatia".

The barrister said his solicitor "is falling on his sword" in connection with the defendant not being present at court.

Judge Broderick said solicitors "need to be very careful" because on this occasion he was not issuing an arrest warrant "but the risk is that if they don't discharge their duties in a proper fashion the court may not be so benign and issue a warrant.

"If that happens, I know that if I was a defendant and my solicitor hadn't done what they were meant to and I got a warrant, I wouldn't be happy".

The prosecution said the case file is with their department and has been allocated to a prosecutor.

The case was adjourned to August for a preliminary enquiry (PE) - the legal step to send the case to the Crown Court.

Judge Broderick told the defence barrister:

"Make sure your client knows, in clear terms, they need to be here on the 12th of August to fix a PE. If he is not here without a very good reason, and a holiday won't be a good reason, I will issue a warrant. He is facing serious charges and it shouldn't be difficult for him to answer his bail".

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