A FORMER city stockbroker who retired at the age of 50 has avoided jail after using aliases to chat about ‘young boys’ online.

John Hewitt, of Old Boars Hill, Oxford, was caught accessing an encrypted message service called ‘Wickr’ using usernames ‘hotperv’ and ‘pissslave’ to message other users about the sexual abuse of young boys between October 13, 2019 and June 28, 2022.

Using the aliases put the 78-year-old in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which was put in place at Oxford Crown Court on July 27, 2018 where he was jailed for 12 months for downloading child pornography.

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Hewitt, who held executive positions at Scrimgeour Vickers and Kemp Gee & Co – both now defunct – during an extensive career in financial services, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday (May 2) for the breach.

Sentencing him to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, Judge Michael Gledhill said: “You should have learned your lessons since that occasion and the six months you spent in prison must have been dreadful for you.

“The thought of you going back to prison at your age when your partner relies on you does not bear thinking about.

“You’re highly intelligent so to see you in this dock, using aliases to access the internet, it’s simply not understandable.

“How on earth could you have done that and risked the future of yourself and your partner?”

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During the sentencing, it was heard that Hewitt had lied about knowing the password to his Wickr account when police officers challenged him on it.

Chats were found on the site between Hewitt and four other adults discussing young children and ‘different scenarios’.

Searches were found on his iPad for ‘fun size boys’ and ‘boys with priests’.

He admitted the breach and told police he has ‘always had an interest and attraction in young boys’.

Defending Hewitt, who before 2018 was the chairman of London-listed property investment firm Highcroft Investments, his barrister stated that his client had not used to aliases to deceive police.

Instead, he used the names to avoid people finding his real name and blackmailing him as he is ‘quite a wealthy man’.

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His barrister added that Hewitt has addressed his ‘interest’ in young boys and they are no longer a concern.

“He knows it was wrong to breach this SHPO,” he said. “He has learnt his lesson from it and there’s been nothing since his cooperation with the police.”

Hewitt was also ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation activity days and £425 in court costs.