School welfare worker guilty of sexual abuse

A former school welfare officer and army cadet leader has been found guilty of sexually assaulting teenage girls.

Neil Beckett, 43, with an address in Kilmore, near Crossgar in County Down, was told by the judge that from “this moment you are a registered sex offender”.

Beckett was found guilty of 16 charges of sexual assault and one charge of sexual grooming.

They cover a period of eight years, between 2015 and 2023.

Beckett was found not guilty of rape alleged to have occurred sometime between 2013 and 2015 while he was an Army cadet leader.

He was also found not guilty of sexual communication with a child and ten other counts of sexual assault.