A man has been sent to prison... for using the social networking site Facebook 83 times.

Dexta Adams – described by his own barrister as "a lonely, friendless man" – had used the internet in defiance of a strict court order.

Four years ago, he was jailed for downloading 30,000 illegal images of children and a ban on him using the web was introduced indefinitely.

But Canterbury Crown Court heard how Adams, of London Road, Maidstone, had been using a computer in a library to use Facebook.

Although there was no evidence the pervert had used it to access more illicit images, a jury decided Adams had breached the order 83 times between November 2010 and February last year.

Judge Andrew Patience QC told him: "Although it hasn’t been shown that what you did hasn’t caused any serious sexual harm to anyone, this was a flagrant and repeated breach and demonstrating a total contempt for this court order."

In May 2008, Adams, then living in Glebe Way, Whitstable, was sent to prison for three-and-a-half years.

He was convicted by a jury of 23 charges of making indecent images of children and 16 of possessing "revolting" photographs.

The court heard how earlier he had been living with a girlfriend in Thorold Road, Chatham, when their home was raided by police.

Warped Adams, who denied the charges, tried to claim they were "mainly artistic".

Dexta Adams was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court

After his latest arrest, Adams again pleaded not guilty to breaching the sex offences' probation order – and to possessing one illegal photograph of a child on his mobile phone. He claimed he thought the girl was aged 18 or 19.

But a jury found him guilty – and the Crown Prosecution Service later offered no evidence on two other alleged breaches by having unsupervised access to a 16-year-old girl after the jury failed to agree on a verdict.

Andrew Espley, defending, said: "He paints a very sorry picture of a lonely friendless man, who is going to find it very difficult to make friends with his convictions. His long term prospects are gloomy.

"Of all his Facebook friends, there was only one who was under 18 years of age – and she was 16. There was no evidence that she suffered any serious sexual harm whatsoever.

"And the one image on his mobile phone was at the lowest level and there is no evidence it came from the internet."

Adams was jailed for a year and told that when he is released he cannot own any device with access to the internet or use computers in libraries.