Father-of-two now living in the woods and forced to tell police 24 hours before he has sex loses his appeal after telling a psychiatric nurse he 'liked to cut burn and bite women until unconsciousness' and 'if they aren't scared I can't climax'

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Court battle: John O'Neill, 45, of York, who was cleared of rape at Teesside Crown Court last year also said women needed to be scared for him to 'climax'

A father-of-two who has to inform the police 24 hours before he has sex with a new partner has lost his legal battle to have the restriction lifted.

John O'Neill, of York, told medics he likes to bite, burn and cut women into unconsciousness, a court heard today.

The 45-year-old, who was cleared of rape at Teesside Crown Court last year, also said women needed to be 'scared' for him to 'climax' and he had been violent to everyone he slept with, a judge was told. 

He even 'stopped asking girlfriends if they consented to sex with him' and told a GP in 2014 'he may have raped someone', it was said.

When a doctor queried his sexual desires he told her: 'You've never read Fifty Shades of Grey then?'

Mr O'Neill, an IT consultant currently living rough in a wood, appeared at York Magistrates' Court today for a hearing to decide whether an interim Sexual Risk Order (SRO) should be made permanent or should end. 

Police fear he is a danger to the public and demand he must inform them 24 hours before he has sex with a new partner or face jail and a fine despite never being convicted of a sex crime.

Mr O'Neill, who used to attend a Fifty Shades of Grey-style fetish club, strongly opposes it and represented himself in court today.

Mr O'Neill has said the ban has stopped him working, restricted his right to benefits and his family, including his two children, don't speak to him.

He lost his case after North Yorkshire Police argued he posed a risk to the public and should be subject to a Sexual Risk Order.

A statement from the North Yorkshire Police read: 'The judge has made it very clear that he believes Mr O' Neill poses a risk of sexual harm, and that it is right to have an order against him in place.

'It is of paramount importance for North Yorkshire Police to protect the public from the risk of sexual harm. We will work with the courts to agree suitable prohibitions that will protect the public from the risk Mr O'Neill poses.'

District Judge Adrian Lower said the terms of the order will be amended at a future hearing, however.

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Destitute: John O'Neill, 45, of York, was tried for rape and cleared after a retrial at Teesside Crown Court in November but says a sex ban order has wrecked his life and left him homeless

Shocking: The father-of-two cooks on a fire and sleeps in a tent unable to get a job or claim benefits

He said the condition that Mr O'Neill gives the police 24 hours' notice before he starts sexual contact with a new partner was 'frankly unpoliceable'.

After what Mr O'Neill said was a 'thoroughly humiliating day', he admitted he lost the case and after representing himself said 'clearly I didn't know what I was doing'.

Asked if the judge's comments gave him hope of starting a relationship, he said: 'My main concern is I'm homeless, I cannot work, I cannot claim benefits, I need to get back into society somehow.' 

Mr O'Neill was cleared of rape following a retrial at Teesside Crown Court last year.

Despite this, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC said after the jury was dismissed: 'Please could you inform the authorities that although this man has been acquitted, it is my judgment that he is a very dangerous individual.'  

Oliver Thorne, representing North Yorkshire Police, referred to a consultation Mr O'Neill had with a community psychiatric nurse, Kevin Holmes, to whom he had been referred by his GP. 

The nurse recorded notes from the meeting saying Mr O'Neill had feelings of rage, anger and violence.

'He has been sexually violent to past girlfriends and he was not sure if they consented,' Mr Thorne, referring to the notes, said.

In 2010 he noticed a change in himself, Mr Holmes's notes stated, adding 'he stopped asking girlfriends if they consented to sex with him'.

The nurse noted he was 'preoccupied with killing himself and others' and he found the idea 'soothing'.

He wanted to find a way of killing himself but wanted it to not look like suicide, Mr Holmes wrote, adding: 'He thought it would be safer for everyone if he was dead.'

The nurse also recorded Mr O'Neill saying: 'I need them to be scared or I don't respond' and 'I find it difficult to climax'.

In April 2014, Mr O'Neill saw his GP and discussed 'biting, choking, cutting and burning', the court heard.

Dr Miriam Hodgson said the consultation started about a heart test and ended with him complaining about a cold, but in between he mentioned 'homicidal and suicidal thoughts'.

Dr Hodgson recorded that his 'sex life has become violent, has been seeking out increasingly extreme sexual experiences, biting, choking, cutting, burning'.

She also wrote: 'Thinks he may have raped someone, it went further than she expected.'

Mr O'Neill also told her he thought about killing the partner 'a lot' and 'has choked her unconscious several times,' the court heard.

The GP also recorded that her patient had tried to kill himself by starving himself, dehydration, crossing the road without looking or getting into a fight with gangs of men.

She wrote: 'Patient thinks he is dangerous and needs to be stopped.' 

Battle: A judge will today decide today whether to end the interim order or make it permanent, which Mr O'Neill, pictured left this morning, and right in March 2015, strongly opposes 

Dr Hodgson noted he should be referred on as an urgent case. 

Mr Holmes also recorded him as saying he saw a TV drama when he was a teenager which featured a prostitute being murdered and he was excited.

Mr O'Neill says the order breaches his human rights and became upset this afternoon when he explained how he and a previous partner used sado-masochism to overcome a loss of libido.

He said they had both suffered the trauma of losing a baby in previous relationships, and said the GP and psychiatric nurse were wrong to believe he is dangerous.

He said he met his partner at a university fetish club after breaking up with his fiancee, who returned to Japan in 2010.

'We had used that (S&M) as a calming and soothing outlet because of our condition,' he told the court.

'It was a loss of libido and both of us had completely lost the ability to climax.'

Mr O'Neill said he was discussing this with his GP in relation to his mental state, and that she misunderstood what he was telling her.

He claimed the GP was distressed during the consultation, saying: 'Her hands were shaking when she was typing.'

When she returned after leaving the room momentarily, she continued the consultation with the door open, he said.

'She was clearly scared.'

Mr O'Neill said the assessment with the psychiatric nurse which followed was 'very odd'.

'He had a look of disgust on his face right from the beginning,' he said. 

Judge Lower asked Mr O'Neill if he had been 'attention seeking' in making the statements of his sexual past to the medical professionals, which were in fact made up.

Mr O'Neill said: 'That's completely and utterly untrue.'

The judge made it clear that the police application was not based on any evidence from the rape complainant, and it stemmed only from what he told the nurse and his GP.

Mr O'Neill said the nurse made an assessment of him after their consultation and pointed out he was deemed 'no risk'. 

Speaking in his woodland camp outside York, where he cooks on a fire and sleeps in a tent,  he said that he is now destitute.

Mr O'Neill, 45, earlier told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme he was focussed on his hearing today but was demoralised to be homeless.

He said he was homeless four years ago and had 'thought all of that was behind me'.

'There's enough to live, enough to survive. Obviously the circumstances are far less than ideal', he said.

'I was homeless before for four years. I thought all this was behind me. To have to go back to it, it has been a bit of a shock. But to be honest I'm entirely focused on the hearing and I'm not thinking about much else.' 

Maintaining a sense of humour about his troubles, he added: 'The bills are very reasonable'. 

Cry for help: The ex-IT worker said he was homeless four years ago and had 'thought all of that was behind me'

He has previously said he had no prospect of forming a relationship under the terms of the sex ban order.

The woman who accused him of rape said she was bitten and scratched, but Mr O'Neill denied the bite and said the scratch came during a massage after consensual sex.

He said he has no criminal record, 'not even a parking ticket'.

At the previous hearing, he said there was 'no prospect' of a relationship at the moment because of the rules he has been forced to live by.

He gave the example of chatting to a woman and saying: 'There's a nice French restaurant I'd like to take you to, but first the police are just going to come around for a little chat.'

Other conditions of the order include him having to hand over the pin for his mobile phone to police, and not to use internet-connected devices which cannot be later checked by officers.