A PAEDOPHILE convicted for the fourth time of child sex offences has been locked up indefinitely for the protection of the public.

Michael Tinning will be freed from prison only when officials from the Parole Board consider that he no longer poses a danger.

Tinning, 46, was jailed in 2003 for offences against a girl, and was given a conditional discharge in 2005 for making indecent photos.

In October 2006, he was again locked up for sexually abusing a boy and failing to report his whereabouts to the authorities.

He was living with a woman and her children in County Durham which put him in breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

The order was imposed by Durham Crown Court in 2003 to ban Tinning from being in a house when under-18s were present.

Following his release from prison, it emerged that he had earlier abused a boy and a girl but they had kept the ordeals secret.

The abuse became known when one of his victims saw a person who resembled Tinning and finally confided in her mother.

Tinning admitted two charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one of sexual assault at an earlier hearing.

At Teesside Crown Court on Friday, Judge Peter Fox, QC, described Tinning's behaviour as "grooming" and said it was likely to have led on to worse if he had not been arrested.

Tinning, formerly from Netwon Aycliffe and Stanley, in County Durham, now has his address listed as Acklington Prison in Northumberland.

His barrister, Ian Bradshaw, told Judge Fox that his offending was confined to three or four years and has not been repeated.

"This man acknowledges that he needs some radical assistance," said Mr Bradshaw. "His behaviour, he would be the first to admit, was absolutely abhorrent."