by Annette Wilson

Habitual Thanet flasher Ricky Neville is back behind bars having been caught without trousers and performing a lewd act in bushes.

He then walked into a primary school playground - both actions breaching a sexual offences prevention order slapped on him by Canterbury Crown Court for exposing himself and breaching a community order.

Neville, 41, of Grosvenor Place, Margate, was back in front of the same court on Wednesday for his latest breaches committed in April and was told by Judge Adele Williams her duty was to protect the public.

She told Neville it was to be hoped that when he was released after serving his three-year sentence, psychiatrists may be able to help him bring an end to his obsession.

The court had been told by Neville’s lawyer, Oliver Saxby, that a condition had been diagnosed.

Alice Dobbie, prosecuting, said on April 4, Neville was seen on a footpath in Margate by a witness who was uneasy about his behaviour as he was ducking behind bushes and she called the police.

But he had already been spotted by a plain clothes officer who saw Neville in bushes without any trousers performing the sex act and then walking past a primary school and into the playground.

Neville had a prolific history of committing offences of exposure or outraging public decency and been sentenced to various orders including prison and community penalties with a view to rehabilitation but all fruitless.

The court imposed a new sex offences prevention order banning Neville from entering public parks and gardens, churchyards and woods and going within 100 metres of a school.

He must not be alone with any child under 16 unless a parent or guardian is present and is banned from seafronts and must not be found in public toilets without lower clothing.

The order and a sex offenders registration order were made indefinitely as was a ban from working with children.

"Take time during this sentence to reflect on where you are going at 41 and take such help as is available to you," Judge Williams told Neville.

Mr Saxby told the court Neville was keen to stop commiting such offences and his guilty pleas were to his credit.

The court ordered 246 days served on remand count towards Neville’s sentence.