Man tried to trick judge with Pope letter

A FORMER call centre worker who tried to hoodwink a judge with a bogus character reference from the Pope escaped a jail term yeterday.

Julian Evans, 28, of Wiefield Road, Monmouth, south Wales, claimed support from the Pontiff himself in a bid to escape justice.

Judge John Curran warned him that he would normally have been jailed for his “ludicrous” attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Instead, he ordered him to serve a two-year community rehabilitation order during his brief appearance at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.

Mr Curran told a trembling Evans: “You appear to be a compulsive liar unable to tell or face up to the truth.

“It was a ludicrous attempt and no one was fooled for a minute. This was an attempt that was doomed to failure from the start.” Evans had previously admitted sending abusive text messages to the personnel officer at the town’s T-Mobile call centre.

Evans, who is HIV positive, was taken on at the centre last year but lost his job almost immediately, triggering a series of abusive text messages.

When he came before magistrates in Merthyr earlier this year he handed in the bogus references which prosecutors quickly confirmed had been bought on the internet for £50.

He then admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice and risked a jail term.

Earlier in the hearing Leighton Hughes, defending, had argued that Evans was mentally and physically unfit for jail. He said losing his job at T-Mobile had pushed Evans over the edge and had led to the first offence.

He had then been so fearful of the consequences it culminated in the “bizarre” attempt to escape justice with false references.

“Nobody, but nobody, thinking straight would have believed that reference from His Holiness the Pope was ever genuine. It could have been written by a child,” Mr Hughes said.

“He is suffering from an illness which in due course will take his life.” Evans, who stood trembling as the judge passed sentence yesterday, was warned that any breach of his order would trigger an immediate jail term.