A CONVICTED sex offender thanked a judge for allowing him to spend time with his dying mother after he was jailed for 20 months.

David Leach was warned he was facing jail after pleading guilty to breaching the terms of his sexual harm protection order (SHPO), last month, and expected to be remanded in custody until his sentencing.

However, Judge Anthony Brown showed the 52-year-old compassion and allowed him to spend time with his mother over the Christmas period.

Yesterday, Leach returned to Teesside Crown Court to learn his fate after he pleaded guilty to using a false name on dating website Grindr, fraudulently using his brother's name to insure his car on three occasions and persuading his 20-year-old boyfriend to buy him a new mobile phone, in breach of his SHPO.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, told the court that Leach had called himself 'Darren' when signed up for Grindr and only told his boyfriend his real name after they eventually met up in 2018.

Miss Haigh said Leach had failed to notify police on three occasions that he was using an alias to insure his car and had thrown away his broken mobile phone meaning it was impossible to check the defendant's internet history.

The court heard how Leach was 12-month suspended sentence in 2010 after being convicted of using Facebook to set up a sexual encounter with a teenage boy.

He was also given an indefinite sexual offences prevention order and was registered as a sex offender for 10 years.

Leach was jailed in 2015 for breaching his SHPO after starting a relationship with a vulnerable young man.

In mitigation, Kelleigh Lodge, her client understood the seriousness of the charges he was facing and was expecting to be jailed.

Judge Brown sentenced Leach, of Stranton Street, Thornaby, to 20 months for breaching his SHPO, a concurrent eight-month sentence for breaching his notification requirements and a further three-month concurrent sentence for false representation for the insurance charges.

He said: "If people like you fail to comply with these requirements it is virtually impossible to assess the risk and manage the risk and that is the offences that you have committed."

After sentence, Leach said: "I would like to thank you for giving me bail and the opportunity to spend Christmas with my mother."