Paedophile who moved to ingoldmells without informing authorities back in jail

Dean Dunhill, who was on the sex offenders register and under a sexual harm prevention order, was required to tell police where he was living but went missing from his accommodation in July this year.

Phillip Plant, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court was supposed to be staying in temporary accommodation in a hotel on Burton Road, Derby, but when his supervising officer visited to tell him he had been found a permanent address there was no trace of him.

“He was not in his room and his bed had not been slept in. He should have notified police that he was no longer residing at the hotel.”

Dunhill was subsequently found on 20 August living in a tent next to a church in the resort of Ingoldmells, near Skegness.

He was arrested and when interviewed said he had a lot of difficulties living in Derby and decided to move but it “slipped his mind” to tell police of his change of circumstances.

Mr Plant said Dunhill had been placed on the sex offenders register in 2018 after being convicted of attempting to cause the sexual exploitation of a child after contacting what he thought were 14 year old girls over the internet and sending them photographs of his genitals. The “girls” were actually paedophile hunters looking to track down men contacting under age children on the internet.

The court was told that since 2018 Dunhill had been convicted on three other occasions of breaching the requirements of his sex offender registration order.

Today (Wednesday) Dunhill, 33, of no fixed address but originally from Derby, was jailed for 10 months after admitting breach of the notification requirements of his sex offender order. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for a further 10 years.

Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight said “He left the Derby area and turns up in a holiday area during the school holidays. He knows full well what the notification requirements are. He knew exactly what he was doing. I find this to be a determined attempt to avoid detection.”

Tony Stanford, in mitigation, said Dunhill had difficulties in Derby and got into rent arrears on his accommodation.

He was then living on the streets but he was well-known as a sex offender and began to attract attention.

Mr Stanford said there was no evidence that Dunhill had attempted to contact any children during the time he was away from the hotel.