Perverted DJ who sexually abused girl is spared jail

Nicholas Onofrio, 52, of Littlehampton, subjected the 15-year-old girl to a sordid sexual encounter in bushes outside a roller disco party at the Littlehampton Sports Dome where he was DJ-ing, last year.

But, despite branding him a ‘high risk of serious harm’ to girls, Justice Mackay 
said supervision and community service was punishment enough for the sex offender.

The mobile phone shop boss, who calls himself DJ Nicko and claimed he had done nothing wrong, pounced on the girl when he went outside for a cigarette during the roller disco.

As other youngsters partied inside, Onofrio invited the girl to look into some bushes. He then grabbed her and began fondling her breasts and inner thigh, before she broke free.

A danger to girls

Onofrio, who appeared for sentencing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, had pleaded not guilty at Lewes Crown Court to sexual activity with a child, but was convicted by a jury in May.

A subsequent report by a probation officer said he still posed a ‘high risk of serious harm to adolescent females’, the judge said.

But, because the activity did not go beyond a ‘low level of seriousness’, prison was not necessary, he continued.

The judge imposed a community order with 18 months’ supervision and ordered Onofrio to do 100 hours of unpaid work. He also passed a sexual offences prevention order, banning him from unsupervised contact with children other than with their parents’ consent.

He said he was ‘satisfied’ such precautions were needed to protect others, adding the he believed Onofrio presented a ‘high risk of harm’ to other girls.

Enquiry launched

John Stride, the chief executive of Inspire Leisure, the trust which operates the Sports Dome and organises the roller disco parties, said that Onofrio had been banned from all of Inspire’s facilities across the Arun district.

He said that the leisure operator would be conducting a full investigation into the incident and added that Onofrio had been employed only a few occasions to DJ at the roller disco parties.

Mr Stride said: “We’re disappointed anything like this could have happened to one of our customers at our facility in the first place. We obviously never want anything like that to happen again.

“Unfortunately, being a public leisure facility, we are a target for individuals of this nature and it isn’t easy to prevent. But I feel we do everything in our power to protect our customers.

“We have banned (Onofrio) from using our facilities. We certainly wont be using him for any of our future discos again.”

For a full report, see this week’s Littlehampton Gazette (Thursday, June 27).