Paedophile caught selling toys at Bilsborrow car boot was banned from any contact with children

A judge at Preston heard Robert Burns and another convicted sex offender operated a stall at an outdoor market at Bilsborrow near Garstang until staff became suspicious and called in police.

The 68-year-old was accused in a pre-sentence report of attempting to groom a seven-year-old boy who regularly attended the car boot sale to help out on a relative’s pitch.

But Burns will have to wait until mid-March to discover his fate after Recorder Ayesha Siddiqi adjourned his sentence hearing to assess the extent of his contact with the boy.

The court was told the pensioner had been made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) after being convicted of a string of offences involving children years ago. The order barred him from having any contact with children under the age of 16.

Despite being warned by police that operating a toy stall at a car boot market would bring him into contact with children and therefore breach the conditions of the order he made regular trips to the car boot in Bilsborrow over a two-month period, jointly running the stall with another man who was also a registered sex offender.

Barrister Hanifa Patel, prosecuting, said the other man had been living with Burns for some time and the pair would regularly attend the sale in separate cars to sell children’s books, Lego, building blocks and other toys.

That man was also arrested and sent to prison for 20 months in October for breaching a similar order.

Ms Patel said that as a sex offender Burns was visited by a police officer on a routine check in July 2024. At that time he was advised that being a dealer at a car boot would break the conditions of his SHPO because of the number of children he would meet. The officer warned him that spot checks would be made to make sure he complied with the terms of the order.

Police were later called in by a woman who helped run the sale after she became concerned by the behaviour of the two men operating the toy stall.

The seven-year-old would often wander around the site on his own and meet other children who were also there to help on family stalls. The boy’s relative said he would often say “hello” to Burns and his co-stallholder and get into conversation with the two men.

One morning the boy was waiting at the entrance to the site when the woman who helped run the sale asked what he was doing. He told her he was waiting for his “friend”, meaning Burns. She felt “extremely uneasy” and told him to go back to his relative’s stall.

The court was told she did not know Burns and the other man were registered sex offenders, but she told him he was not allowed to sell toys and befriend children because he had been seen giving money and other gifts to youngsters.

On one occasion he gave the seven-year-old a bag containing golf balls, tees and other items. She felt that was not acceptable and so told him to leave the car boot and not to return.

Burns was arrested after the woman reported her concerns to the police. He told them he thought giving the boy golf balls was not a breach of his court order.

The other man was also arrested and jailed for breaking the conditions of his court order imposed for sex offences.

Ms Patel revealed Burns, of Pinfold Lane, Lancaster, had a lengthy police record dating back to 1976 which totalled 53 offences, at least nine of which involved sex offences involving children.

“This was a serious breach,” said Ms Patel. “He has been at a car boot sale with another male who was also a sex offender and was warned by police not to continue selling toys and by a person who ran the sale, yet he continued.

“That’s a very serious and persistent breach. Thankfully no other offences arose out of this breach.”

She said the probation service had suggested his actions at the car boot sale could be described as grooming because of the manner in which Burns was behaving.

Lewis Hazeldine, defending, said that although the offence amounted to a deliberate breach, his client had only made contact with the boy “on two brief occasions”. Burns accepted he had spoken to the boy but not over a two-month period as suggested in the charge against him.

Recorder Siddiqi said that before she could decide what the sentence should be she needed to know how persistent the contact with the boy had been over that period at the car boot sale.

She decided to adjourn the hearing until March 16 for a short “trial of issue” to determine just how much contact Burns and the boy had during the two months in question before deciding what to do with the pensioner.