A registered sex offender who breached his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) multiple times has been jailed.

Graham Robinson, from Faversham, was convicted at Canterbury Crown Court in 2018 of possessing indecent images of children and was made subject to strict conditions on his behaviour.

These included restrictions around his access to mobile phones or computers and his use of the internet.

He was also required to notify the police of any devices and bank accounts he possessed and allow his devices to be examined whenever it was requested.

The SHPO also required Robinson to install monitoring software on his phone and other internet-enabled devices, to allow officers to check he was not committing further offences or breaching the conditions imposed by the court.

Between 2020 and 2022, investigators completed unannounced visits to Robinson’s home and discovered multiple breaches.

On one occasion, a smartphone was recovered at his property that he claimed belonged to a friend.

When the officers called the number they had had for Robinson the phone rang and it was seized.

Two phones and two internet-enabled devices that he hadn’t declared were recovered during a further inspection and investigators found Robinson had been using software to wipe his phone and computer.

In February 2022, Robinson was arrested and officers located a tablet, multiple USB drives and other storage devices at his home.

They also found he had several bank cards and accounts he had not disclosed.

During the search, the constables seized a flick knife and a credit card that concealed three blades.

The devices seized from Robinson were forensically examined and found to contain more than 460,000 images.

A proportion of the content was reviewed, and officers discovered 138 indecent images of children.

Eight were of the most serious category. There was also evidence of 23 extreme pornographic images.

Robinson, of Beech Close, was later charged and, at Maidstone Crown Court pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child, three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images, seven counts of breaching his sexual harm prevention order, three counts of failing to comply with notification requirements of the sex offenders register and having an offensive weapon in a private place.

Today (Thursday, June 13) the 66-year-old was sentenced to three years in jail.

He was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will remain in place for 15 years and was also added to the Sex Offender’s Register indefinitely.

Detective constable Jamie Easdown, of the Swale offender management unit, said: “We regularly visit registered sex offenders living in our communities to monitor their conduct and ensure they are complying with any conditions in place to prevent further crimes. We install software on their devices to monitor activity online and will promptly complete searches at home addresses if we suspect further offences.

“In this way, we endeavour to protect the most vulnerable in our community and, where any breaches are discovered, they will be arrested and brought back before the court to answer for their actions.”