A CONVICTED child sex offender who ran a Saturday morning wrestling club for boys has been ordered to stay away from youngsters.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Keith Halliwell regularly took members of the club swimming and would play games with them in the water.

Some boys, who went back to his house for extra fitness training, removed their tops so the former professional wrestler could massage their shoulders.

The court heard that Halliwell's behaviour amounted to "grooming" the boys and their parents so that he could get closer to them.

Halliwell, 55, of Blackburn, was made the subject of a Sex Offender Order which prohibits him from allowing people under 18 into his home, prohibits him from undertaking any activity likely to bring him into repeated contact with people under 18 and prohibits him from taking up residence without first notifying police, who must also approve that residence.

Niamh Noone, representing the Chief Constable of Lancashire, said Halliwell had been convicted of three offences of indecent assault on boys aged 10 and 11 in October 1991 by Preston Crown Court.

He had been given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years. The court heard Halliwell and another man had invited the boys to their home, shown them wrestling moves and taken photographs of them wearing leotards.

In October 1999, Halliwell started a wrestling club based in Albion Mill, Blackburn, for boys aged between 11 and 16. He would wrestle with the boys, pinning them to the floor with his chest. He took some of them swimming and also invited boys and their parents back to his home.

In statements three 13-year-old boys told how Halliwell was proud of his hard stomach and had told a boy to put his fist against it. He told how Halliwell would wrestle with some of the boys. At the swimming baths Halliwell would play games which involved physical contact. On the occasions when they went to Halliwell's house they would do fitness tests which included sit-ups with Halliwell sitting on their legs.

The second boy said he liked Halliwell and had enjoyed going to the baths with him. The third boy said he had once head-butted Halliwell in the stomach because the coach wanted to demonstrate how hard his muscles were.

Paul Clarke, of the NSPCC, said he assessed Halliwell as being a high risk of re-offending. At the time of the previous offences there had been charges of abduction after boys aged nine and 10 had been taken to Bradford without the knowledge of their parents. These charges ere not proceeded with.

Mr Clarke said Halliwell claimed he had only pleaded guilty to the indecent assault charges on the advice of his barrister to avoid prison.

Mr Clarke said that while he was running the Blackburn Wrestling Club, Halliwell had groomed parents so that they had confidence in him. He groomed the boys through repeated physical contact, which was sexualised by telling rude jokes.

"His style of offending is not as an aggressive predator," said Mr Clarke. "He spends time targeting young boys and grooming them and I would classify him as high risk. Creating the situation where they can have physical contact with children is common and often the children do not identify that as sexual abuse because they can't see into his mind."

Daniel King, representing Halliwell, said his client was born in Blackburn and had worked in textiles for 30 years before retiring through ill health.

Halliwell said his interest in wrestling had started when his mother took him to watch the sport at King George's Hall when he was 20 took up the sport professionally under the name Butcher King. Halliwell said he had a total of 54 bouts at local venues, losing only two. In October 1999 he read an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph asking for people to join an American-style wrestling club. Halliwell said he taught Olympic freestyle wrestling.

He said the boys were told they could go swimming if their parents knew and that he had invited both boys and their parents to his house. Mr King said Halliwell did not accept he had massaged the boys..

But the magistrates said they found it highly probable that the massage did occur and accepted the expert evidence of Mr Clark that the actions represented a grooming process. They imposed the order without time limit.

Speaking after the hearing the parents of one of the boys, who first alerted police, said they were delighted the order had been made.

"Hopefully it will prevent other boys being put in the same position," said the boy's father. "We had a hunch that something wasn't right and the police reacted very quickly and very properly."

Halliwell refused to comment other than to say that he intends to appeal.