A charity boss who pleaded guilty to paying for sex with a child has been given permission to keep his role.
Unsuccessful UKIP candidate Ken Lowry is a director and trustee of the national CERT UK charity and also has his own company, Homeless Birmingham, according to Birmingham Live.
The former soldier was also nominated for a special recognition award from the Lord Mayor of Birmingham last December for his work in supporting those living on the streets during the Covid pandemic.
However, just weeks prior the 49-year-old pleaded guilty to the offence of paying for sex with a child - a 16-year-old female - which can carry a maximum five year jail term.
In February, Lowry, from Rubery, was sentenced to a two-year community order and 40 days rehabilitation order and was also hit with a month's curfew.
His victim, now 17, has now spoken out because of what she sees as a lenient sentence and the fact Lowry has been allowed to continue in his role with CERT UK, with 'safeguarding measures' in place.
The victim claimed she was 'vulnerable and unstable mentally' when she agreed to have sex with Lowry for £120 in 2020, with the offence taking place at his home.
She said: "Kenneth was charged with paying for the sexual services of a child. He paid £120 to have sex with me whilst a relative of mine sat and watched. My relative had wanted the money to go to a party."
It is understood that the teenager told police she had agreed to have sex with Lowry and that she had felt pressured into it by her relative.
She claimed the incident had left her traumatised.
When contacted, Lowry claimed the girl had been a sex worker who had replied to his advert for 'legal age sex' placed on the Craigslist website.
The victim confirmed she was paid £120 by Lowry.
She denied working as a prostitute and it is understood that the victim was not described as a prostitute or sex worker at court.
Lowry said: "I believed she was over 18 at the time because it was an over-18 site that she was on, Craigslist. My advert was for sexual services and she actually contacted me, not the other way around.
"My ad asked for legal age sexual services. 100 per cent those words were in. It wasn't specific to any age, it had to be over the legal age because I've seen other ads on that site that didn't specify an age."
Speaking of his regret at the offence, he added: "Oh, I'm absolutely disgusted, I'm at loggerheads with myself. I'm disgusted.
"Again, to be clear, she was over the age of consent. It's the fact that she was over the age of consent is what actually happened. And if money had not changed hands there would have been no issue.
"If no money changed hands then there would have been no criminal activity whatsoever."
Stressing the sex was consensual, Lowry added: "She came into my house, she took her own clothes off of her own free will, we engaged and then that was it. And then I dropped them back off at the train station and that was the last I heard of it."
Asked if the girl's relative was present and watched while he had sex with the 16-year-old, he said: "Yes, that's correct."
The victim confirmed that she kept the majority of the payment.
In the UK, it is illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to pay for the sexual services of anyone under the age of 18. Sentencing guidelines for the offence of paying for the sexual services of a child if a victim is aged 16-17 can range from a community order to a five year prison sentence.
A West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman confirmed that Lowry pleaded guilty to an indictment containing one count of paying for the sexual services of a child, contrary to s.47(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
The particulars of the offence were that Lowry "intentionally obtained for himself the sexual services" of the victim, "a child under the age of 18 years, that is 16 years, not reasonably believing that she was of or over the age of 18, and before obtaining those services he promised payment for those services to" the victim.
West Midlands Police confirmed a 21-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child and was later released without charge.
After avoiding a jail sentence, Lowry stood as a UKIP candidate in May's Scottish Parliament elections, having previously stood for the party in local elections in Northfield.
He was also given the green light to continue in his director and trustee role with Cert UK Ltd (Community Emergency Response Team UK), but with 'safeguarding measures' in place.
The charity was initially set up to help people affected by the damage caused by Storm Desmond in December 2015 and as CERT (UK) Ltd expanded to help former military personnel, victims of natural disasters, homelessness and domestic violence.
Kerryanne Wilde, founder and director of the charity, defended the decision to allow Lowry to continue in his trustee role and also claimed the victim was a 'prostitute'.
She said: "Kenneth's admitted that he had sex with a prostitute, she was 16, so he paid for sex with a prostitute at the end of the day she was 16 and it was consensual at the time.
"As an organisation, we've put measures in place so that Kenneth could come back and continue the amazing good work that he's done in Birmingham, the thousands of families and individuals that he's helped and supported and built Homeless Birmingham over the years.
"We put measures in place that Kenneth wasn't allowed to be with anyone under the age of 18 on his own, he was always to be with any vulnerable individual with another member of the team there and we review that on a regular basis.
"We've done our due diligence as an organisation, we've done our safeguarding and we've put in place measures for that."
She added: "As a charity we support the vulnerable, we support those that do have convictions, we support veterans and Kenneth admitted what he'd done.
"We've not turned anyone away and we wouldn't turn Kenneth away from all the great work that he's done in the Birmingham area to support the vulnerable, the homeless, after being on the streets himself as a veteran.
"As soon as we were made aware of the situation we put in place our safeguarding measures, straightaway, as soon as it was brought to our attention by Kenneth, of what accusations had been made against him.
"As an organisation we're in a bit of a rock and a hard place. We say in our constitution and we say in everything that we do we support all the vulnerable, ex offenders and whatever else.
"If we had turned out back on Kenneth it wouldn't have looked good on us because we weren't supporting him as an ex offender.
"And we weren't supporting him as a veteran and we weren't also supporting him in the fact that Homeless Birmingham was his lightbulb moment as I call it.
"It was him working to give something back to the community, after him finding himself homeless on the streets."
A person is disqualified from acting as a charity trustee or holding a senior management position if they are placed on the Sex Offenders Register, but Lowry was not placed on the register.
A Charity Commission spokesperson said: "A charity should be a safe place. We encourage anyone with concerns about a charity to share information with us, so that we can assess it carefully."
The Commission has discretionary powers to consider removal of a trustee in circumstances where they are convicted of an offence which is not included in the list of crimes which warrant automatic disqualification. It is understood Lowry is not under investigation by the Charity Commission.
