A CHILD sex offender who breached his prevention order by letting children visit his home has been jailed for four and a half years.

Judge Graham Knowles, QC, told Jess Dean that he had committed a 'serious and substantial' breach and posed a risk.

Dean, 55, was the subject of a 10 year sex offences prevention order, imposed after he was jailed for 54 months in 2005, for molesting a boy.

Dean, who had a box of children's toys in a room and teddy bears on a bed at his house in Nelson, disregarded his 'extensive and detailed' prison licence conditions.

Burnley Crown Court heard he also deceived the police and probation service, who were supervising him closely, for four months.

The defendant, of Napier Street, admitted breaching the SOPO and had been committed for sentence by magistrates.

He must serve the 995 days unexpired portion of his last prison sentence and was given two years on top for the breach.

The hearing had been told in 2001, Dean was convicted of gross indecency against a nine-year-old girl and was given a community order.

In December 2005, he was given a 90 month extended sentence - 54 months in custody and 36 months extended licence - after he was convicted of two charges of indecent assault on a male under 14 and one of sexual assault on a male.

Daniel Thomas, for Dean, said his relatives were under no illusions about his record, but he continued to be a part of their family.

There was no suggestion he was alone with the children or that they stayed the night.

It was his first breach of the SOPO and was committed two years after his release.

Mr Thomas added jail would be 'catastrophic' for the defendant's widowed mother who he helped out.

But the judge told Dean: "You had no business having children in the house."