A CONVICTED sex offender has been locked up for three years for “flagrantly” flouting tough banning orders to stop him downloading child pornography.

Gavin Adams got a suspended prison sentence and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) last year for amassing a sickening collection of indecent images.

Last August, the electronics expert was prohibited from owning a computer or any device such as a mobile telephone which would allow him access to the internet.

But while he was on bail for the child porn charges and later when he awaited sentence, Adams was caught with a laptop, two mobiles and a hard-drive.

The 35-year-old, from Darlington, also had a pocket computer, charger and internet connector when he was stopped for dangerous driving on the A19 in June this year.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday how Adams tried to force another car off the road after joining the southbound dual carriageway at its junction with the A66.

The judge, Recorder Tom Bayliss, described Adams’s late-night driving as “as bad as it gets” and banned the pervert loner from the roads for two years.

Adams, who moved to Union Street, Middlesbrough, after his first arrest in 2007, admitted dangerous driving and breaching the 30-week suspended jail sentence.

He also pleaded guilty to six charges of breaching the SOPO and six of possessing indecent photographs of children – amounting to a total of 62 images.

His lawyer, Graham Silvester, told the court that Adams had not downloaded child porn since the SOPO was imposed, and said he was keen to address his problem.

“The pre-sentence report paints a picture of a rather pathetic individual with difficulties in his personal life, and perhaps with an obsession with things that are not good for him,” he said.

Adams was ordered to undertake a sex offenders’ treatment programme when he appeared at the court last year for possessing and making 1,346 indecent images.

The court heard that police swooped on his home in Lewes Road, Darlington, in March 2007 after they launched an operation codenamed Rotunda.

During the search, the indecent images were found in four locations – on Adams’ computer, in a briefcase, on a zip-disc and a CD in a chest of drawers. Jailing him, Mr Recorder Bayliss told him: “In the face of the orders and the leniency shown by the court, you acquired a telephone and hard-drive to access the internet.

“In other words, you were taking not a blind bit of notice of the orders that had been made by this court. You are motivated to repeatedly disobey these orders.”