A sex offender has been jailed for breaching a court order after it was found he had been in contact with children.

In 2020 at Maidstone Crown Court, Ben Champion, of Old Road, Chatham, was convicted of making indecent images of children.

As part of the conviction, he was subject to a sexual harm prevent order (SHPO) which placed strict conditions on his behaviour.

These conditions included no unsupervised contact with children, notifying the police if he stayed at a new address for more than seven days and retaining his internet history for inspection by officers.

However, on April 18, police went to Champion’s registered home and found he was living somewhere else.

Enquiries revealed he had been in contact with children and had deleted some of the internet history on his phone.

The 31-year-old was arrested and charged with multiple breaches of his sexual harm prevention order between March and April.

He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court and on Tuesday, September 17 he was jailed for two years and eight months.

Investigating officer, PC Areolito Gashi, said: “We regularly visit registered sex offenders living in our communities to monitor their conduct and ensure they are complying with any court conditions that are in place to prevent further crimes.

“In this case, once we found Champion had not been staying at his address, we swiftly tracked him down and discovered he had breached further restrictions on his conduct.

“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.”