A SEX offender breached restrictions by registering two email addresses and not telling the police officer whose job it is to monitor him.

Eric Cox’s offender manager found a mobile phone in his wardrobe when he called at the 58-year-old’s Middlesbrough home last August.

An examination of the handset revealed the email addresses – both in Cox’s name – but nothing more sinister was found.

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, told Teesside Crown Court: “He is doing his best to stay on the straight and narrow. He has realigned himself in society and volunteers to take lie-detector tests. He is on tagged surveillance.”

Cox, of Carlow Street, was jailed for five years in 2016 for indecently assaulting a boy, and was released on licence last July.

In 2005, he got a two-year sentence for “contact offences with a little girl”, said prosecutor Joanne Kidd, and in 2009, he was prosecuted for possessing indecent images of children.

As part of his sex offender notification requirements, he has to tell police and a probation worker about any aliases he uses, bank accounts he opens and email addresses he has.

Judge Sean Morris told him: “This was a silly breach, and it is not one which, on the guidelines, crosses the custody threshold, but you must remember you are walking on eggshells when you are on these orders.

“You have been complying with requirements for a long time. Make sure that continues.”

Cox admitted failing to comply with notification , and was given a 12-month community order.