A REGISTERED sex offender who repeatedly flouted an order forbidding him to have contact with young children, unless with the express knowledge of social services, has been jailed.

Robert John Woodhouse was left alone in a car with a young child while the child’s mother went into a shop.

Woodhouse, who was previously jailed for two and-a-half years in 2013 for causing or inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, also admitted brief, but apparently unplanned accidental contact with a child on a trip to Darlington.

Teesside Crown Court heard that there had been in fact multiple breaches of a sexual offences prevention order Woodhouse had been given when he was jailed.

The 28-year-old, of Eppleby, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, began a relationship with a mother who was said to be unaware of his background.

However “alarm bells” began to ring for the woman’s own mother who contacted police with her suspicions about Woodhouse.

She said she did not trust Woodhouse, who had manipulated her daughter, whom she described as lonely, depressed, naïve and vulnerable.

Graeme Silvester, mitigating, said the defendant accepted jail was inevitable and conceded he had made no attempt to contact social services when he began a relationship with the woman.

He said: “The message has got home to him. He made full admissions in police interview and no harm or damage was caused to the child.

“The lady in question has now ended the relationship.”

Woodhouse, who pleaded guilty to two breaches of the order, was described as having a “level of unacceptance” in terms of his past offending.

That involved sending sexually explicit texts to a young girl asking to see a picture of her naked. He was on bail when he contacted another different girl via Facebook and persisted with attempts to try and arrange a meeting with her, despite her saying she was only 14 and he was a stranger.

Recorder Rachael Harrison said Woodhouse “seemed to think this was not a serious matter”.

She said: “All contact between you and children provides a real and obvious risk.”

Woodhouse was jailed for a year.