A serial paedophile who shared a bed with a young boy and collected vile images of other children has been jailed.
Aylesbury man Douglas Smith, who was jailed for two years, downloaded more than 200 sick images of children on his computer and mobile phone, including some categorised at level five – the most serious.
Experts found he had been searching the internet using the terms ‘paedo’ and ‘paedo boys’.
At court it emerged that Smith, of Fowler Road, was well known to police.
In 2010 he had been given a sexual offences banning order and a suspended prison sentence after admitting 16 counts of making indecent images of young boys.
He was forced to undergo a rehab programme but failed to complete the voluntary part of the course aimed at preventing a relapse and just weeks later began downloading vile images and making friends with children living near him.
An expert from a child protection charity said this week there were warning signals Smith could reoffend.
Oxford Crown Court heard how Smith was in regular contact with many children, including one boy who would sleep at his house.
One of the boys spoke about the paedophile giving him ‘hugs and kisses’ and said he would sleep in Smith’s bed, despite his parents thinking he was sleeping on the sofa.
Police inquiries showed Smith was in regular contact with 15 children, aged between six and 15, both male and female. However, the court was told there was no suggestion Smith had done anything sexual with any of the youngsters.
Sentencing on Monday, Judge Mowat said Smith’s actions represented a ‘flagrant breach’ of his sexual offences prevention order.
The Lucy Faith Foundation’s Donald Findlater said Smith’s refusal to take part in the voluntary part of the rehab programme could have been taken as an indication he still presented a risk.
Mr Findlater said: “Making someone attend who is not interested is probably not going to have a significant impact.
“Where an offender is offered that and chooses not to attend, that has to be a sign that this person is potentially some risk because they don’t have the motivation to learn.”
The defendant’s wife left him after the initial charges, for which he was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court in April 2010, and most of the rest of his family became estranged from him following his second arrest.
Smith’s actions were uncovered when he asked the father of some of the children he had befriended to wipe his computer so he could sell it.
The father, who was suspicious of Smith, turned it on, found pictures of a naked boy and contacted police.
Matthew Rowcliffe, mitigating, said Smith accepted the serious nature of his offences and felt ‘ashamed and guilty’.
Mr Rowcliffe said: “Most of the contact was innocuous, much of it occurred in public places and there was no suggestion that any sexual behaviour occurred.”
Smith pleaded guilty before the court to 11 counts of breaching his sexual offences prevention order and four counts of possessing indecent images.
As well as his prison sentence, Judge Mowat ordered that Smith’s order be renewed and that he could not have unsupervised contact with children aged under 16 years indefinitely. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for the next 10 years and is banned from working with children.