A Kent man convicted for possessing indecent images of children has been banned from travelling to Asia after breaching a stipulation of his sentence.

A foreign travel order preventing registered sex offender Frederick Stephens, 55, from visiting Asia for three years was secured by detectives at Canterbury Magistrates this week.

The civil action also forbids him from travelling to Turkey and the earliest it will be reviewed is May 2013.

Officers from east Kent lodged the application after Stephens, once of Margate but now residing at Wandsworth prison, went to the Philippines last year without informing police, a stipulation following his sentence for the distribution of indecent images of children in 2001.

He was jailed for 14 months last October for the breach.

East Kent Det Ch Insp Paul Fotheringham said: "This is the first order of its type in the county and undoubtedly one of the first in the country after the introduction of this revised legislation.

"My staff have made the most of the new powers and, as a result, we have more control and the ability to continually monitor an individual who poses a potential risk. We will not hesitate in pursuing further orders where appropriate."

Stephens was jailed in 2001 for child sex offences following an international investigation by the then National Crime Squad into the distribution of indecent images of children. He was one of more than 100 arrests made around the world and was released in 2002.