Ian Bissett given concurrent two-year term over address breach

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a two-year prison term on Ian Bissett at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for an address-notification offence, to run alongside a sentence he was already serving. The proceedings were reported on 26 November 2014.

The charge was that he had not told gardaí about an address change within seven days, between 13 July and 19 August 2011. Bissett pleaded not guilty. A trial ended in his conviction the month before the report.

Sergeant Francis Byrne, giving evidence to prosecutor Geraldine Small, said Bissett had been told in 2011 that the Sex Offenders Act required him to register his current address and report changes. He said Bissett initially met that requirement by supplying the Salvation Army Hostel, Dublin 2, as his address.

Sgt Byrne said the manager alerted gardaí on 2 September 2011 that Bissett had not returned between 21 July and 24 August. He said Bissett was barred from the hostel on 24 August.

According to the report, Bissett was arrested in October 2011 and explained that he had a warrant and wanted to avoid arrest. Sgt Byrne said Bissett also told gardaí he had relocated to Limerick; he attributed his failure to report the move to being “homeless and fed up”.

The report recorded his release from prison on 21 June 2011 after a five-year term for aggravated sexual assault and threatening to kill a man in September 2005.

Sgt Byrne put Bissett’s previous convictions at 22. The offences included robbery, endangerment, damaging property and assault causing harm, alongside aggravated sexual assault and threatening to kill.