A CONVICTED child sex offender had contact with three young girls in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Blackburn magistrates heard Benjamin Graham was found by police at the home of a woman with a two-week-old baby girl.

They later discovered he had been to her sister’s house, where there were two young girls, on two occasions.

The sister told police she had not been informed that Graham was on the Sex Offender Register.

Graham, 30,of Ryden Avenue, Leyland, pleaded guilty to three breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years with 30 days' rehabilitation. He was ordered to pay £128 victim surcharge and £85 costs.

Pam Ward, prosecuting, said police received a call from a distressed woman who said she was calling from an address in Colne.

When they arrived she answered the door and said she had made the call by mistake, nothing had gone on and she was alone.

“The police went in and found the defendant sitting on a bed in the process of packing clothes into a holdall,” said Mrs Ward.

“He said there had been an argument and he was trying to get someone to pick him up and take him back to Leyland where he came from. The police checked the computer and found this order.”

Mrs Ward said Graham had told the authorities about where he was staying but he hadn’t mentioned the female child.

His girlfriend’s sister said she had allowed the defendant into her house on two occasions when her daughters were there and she had not been aware of his previous convictions or the orders he was subject to.

Mrs Ward said the Sexual Harm Prevention order was made in May 2017.

Graham had been convicted of sexual activity with a female child under the age of 16 and making indecent photographs of children. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison suspended for two years and the Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed for 10 years.

Jonathan Norman, defending, said his client’s relationship with the mother of the baby had started very legitimately through the internet.

“She was pregnant at the time and when the baby was born he took certain steps but they were not enough,” said Mr Norman.

“He didn’t go into enough detail and he accepts he was to blame.”