A convicted paedophile has been jailed after breaching his sexual harm prevention order by posing online as a photography company and asking families if he could take pictures of their babies.

Steven Hobson, 30, also admitted failing to notify the police of his whereabouts when he moved from Sheffield to East Lancashire earlier this year, and pleaded guilty to making five indecent category B images of children and five category C images.

Hobson, originally from South Yorkshire, was jailed in 2017 for making and distributing indecent images of children after he posed online as another man, and asked a 13-year-old girl to take photos and videos of herself breastfeeding a doll.

Upon his release he was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements for 10 years, but in April last year, South Yorkshire Police put an appeal out for his arrest after he went missing in January.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Hobson was eventually located in East Lancashire in April 2021, after moving to the area to live with a woman.

Prosecuting at an earlier hearing in November, Olivia Beesley said: “He is a very high risk offender and in January he left his address without notifying the police of where he was going.

“He was reported missing by his parents, and it transpired he had moved to live with a woman in Bacup.

“Police in Lancashire carried out a search of the woman’s house, where he was located and arrested, and a mobile phone was seized.

“Images were discovered on the phone, which was the first breach of his order, the second breach came when police discovered he’d set up a Facebook profile in a fake name.

"The third breach came when it was revealed he’d posed as a photography company on Facebook and had been sending messages asking families if he could take photos of their babies.

“The fourth breach was noted after he’d told women he would take photos of them breastfeeding their children, and the fifth breach was when it was discovered his mobile phone had been factory reset multiple times.

“He had also set up a Snapchat account in a fake name.”

Mitigating, Alison Whalley said there seemed to be a pattern of offending with her client, and that he suffered with anxiety and depression and was waiting on one-to-one support and talking therapy.

She said: “The woman he moved in with in East Lancashire is supportive of him and she has no children.”

In November, Judge Sara Dodd said she was unable to sentence Hobson until she had chance to decide whether he was a dangerous offender and had seen a pre-sentence report.

Yesterday (Thursday January 19), Hobson was jailed for four years and seven months, told to sign the sex offenders register for life and was also made subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.