Gainsborough sex offender is back behind bars after breaching Sexual Harm Prevention Order

Rhys Lynn, 27, was jailed for 16 months after he admitted failing to notify the police of his new partner's address and breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order on four occasions.

Lynn, formerly of Hawthorn Avenue, Cherry Willingham, and now of The Quays, Gainsborough, was sentenced to five years and four months imprisonment at Lincoln Crown Court in February 2019.

In addition to his jail term, Lynn was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to comply with sex offender notification requirements.

Those orders required Lynn to notify the authorities if he began a relationship which put him in possible contact with children or if he was staying at a new address.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Lynn started working at a chicken factory in Gainsborough and began a relationship with a woman who had two young children around a year after he was released from prison.

Caroline Bradley, prosecuting, said Lynn did not disclose his offending to the woman and on occasions would act as a babysitter for the children and stay at their address.

There were also other child visitors to the property, and Lynn also visited a friend who had a teenage daughter, Miss Bradley told the court.

Lynn was arrested after the authorities became aware of the contact.

During interview he admitted failing to disclose his new relationship to his risk offending manager and the Probation Service because he was happy.

Neil Sands, mitigating, said Lynn had been successfully co-operating with the Probation Service for a year after his release from prison before this new relationship began and he told the court Lynn's best mitigation was his early guilty plea and candour with the police.

Passing sentence Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight made it clear there was no evidence of further sexual offending.

But the Judge told Lynn: "I understand the desire for happiness, but you have a history others do not."