Richard - You are indeed correct. There have been many hearings about Christopher Alexander at Oxford Crown Court over the last 9 months. He has faced two sets of offences, the first were for aviation related offences, the second set some what more serious in my opinion as they related to offences against a Sex Offenders Prevention order. The two sets of charges were interlinked.
The obvious question for other users on here is about my interest in this. Simple really, I have held a PPL since 1986 and have been a keen reader of this forum for the last 15 years. Work keeps me very busy so I have resisted the temptation to post on here before. My view is that getting involved with Internet Forums can quickly remove any free time that someone can have! My sisters children were members of a Church choir just outside Banbury - Mr Alexander became the conductor there for some time. None of us knew his history and she (and her children) were shocked when Alexander was arrested for breaching his Sex Offenders Prevention order.
He was arrested for his breaches of that Order - not for the CAA issues as he claimed on Flyer Forum
I feel I need to make it clear that what I am writing here is now public domain information and is free of any Court reporting restrictions. On Thursday 30th Jan it was reported on my local evening news.
In 2008 Alexander was convicted of a child related sex offence. Shortly after the offence Alexander (his current surname) changed his surname by deed poll from Ebbs to Alexander. Of course this thwarted any searches on Google which linked to his previous history.
Choirmaster admits sexually assaulting boy (From Gazette Series)
The offence from 2008 resulted in the Judge ordering that Alexander should never be allowed to work with children for his lifetime
To quote from the newspaper report in 2008 the Judge said at the time:
Ebbs, who sat clutching a Bible in the dock throughout the hearing, was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for five years - and he was banned from working with children in any capacity for the rest of his life.
"That means no more choirs with children in them," the judge told Ebbs.
The two matters (aviation and sex offences) were linked to each other as part of the issues that Alexander faced was the fact that he employed a child at his flying school (Hinton Pilot Flight Training at Hinton airfield) to clean aircraft in exchange for flights.
The other was of course his work with a choir full of children.
The nine charges brought against by the CAA were related to personal licence issues. He was found not guilty at Oxford Crown Court on 25th January after a three day trial on these offences. Costs were awarded against the CAA but were not agreed at the end of the trial and would require another hearing for cost to be agreed. To the best of my knowledge that has not happened yet.
I also read the Flyer forum, Alexander had been a contributor there, openly in his own name since Nov 2012. He posted there on Wednesday (the thread was later removed) I quote below part of what he claimed
We called the doctor that did my medical, the CAA admitted that all the aircraft were fully legal etc etc, and on the last day I was found NOT guilty on all matters. A lot was made of the allegations made on PPRune which were all unfounded. We were awarded full costs which are in six figures. The civil action which they indicated today they will settle is in seven figures.
Lets be clear here, the legality of the aircraft was not a question for the trial, it was all about the legality of Alexanders own personal licence. I am amazed that (if) the CAA had agreed to a seven figure sum without so much as a hearing in such a short time scale. But then it would seem to be another case of "Chris say's - yawn..."
I can't remember any post by GEP (or anyone else) about Alexander in connection to this. I can remember some serious questions about the condition of his companies aircraft (Hinton Pilot Flight Training) I can also remember a post by GEP that praised the company after it had sorted out the issues with the maintenance. After that the thread was deleleted.
Christopher Alexander was due for trial next week with respect to the breach of the Sex Offenders Prevention Order. The trial was listed for 5 days.
On Thursday 31st January he was listed for "mention" before Judge Pringle
He changed his plea for the four charges that he faced in relation to the Sex Offenders Prevention Order to
Guilty on two counts. The Judge decided to deal with it there and then. He was sentenced to a fine totaling £3500 plus costs of £1000 against him with the two remaining charges to stay on the Court record (they can be made active again in the future should anything else happen).
My sister has given a statement to a national newspaper that intends to run a story about Alexander shortly, the subject is about how easy it was for a convicted sex offender to change name by deed poll and to offend again. She has talked in her statement about how it has traumatized her children and shaken her trust.
Anyway - my little contribution over so back to my coffee and croissants here on a lovely weekend break with my family! No flying for me today
