A registered paedophile has been jailed after he tampered with a monitoring device and hid a hard drive from police.

Rhys Mateer was previously convicted at Maidstone Crown Court in 2020 of engaging in sexual communication with a child.

He received a suspended sentence that came with strict sex offender notification requirements.

This included telling police within three days if he used an alias online or received new bank cards.

He was also issued with a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO). It allowed officers access to any device capable of storing digital images.

Mateer was subject to unannounced visits from police to check he was complying.

On June 15, two constables arrived at his home and found he had tampered with monitoring software installed on his mobile phone.

He had used an application that prevented from keeping his browsing history.

Further checks found he had been using an alias on his gaming console without notifying the police.

He also had a laptop and an external hard drive, both of which hadn't been declared.

Mateer, formerly from Minster, was arrested and further searches located a bank card he had not declared, a tablet and a mobile phone in his car.

He was charged and pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to five counts of breaching his SHPO and two counts of breaching the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.

Yesterday (October 3), the 27-year-old was sentenced to two years and seven months’ imprisonment.

This included four months for breaching a suspended sentence. On his release from prison, he will be subject to a further SHPO indefinitely.

PC James Harris said: “The conditions that come with these court orders are an opportunity for sex offenders to show they are attempting to reform their ways and can be trusted to not reoffend whilst living in the community.

“Our unannounced visit to this particular individual identified several breaches and he was immediately arrested.

“He is now serving a prison sentence and will be subject to further checks on his conduct when he is eventually released.”