A convicted paedophile failed to tell police about three devices he was in possession of after being released from prison, one of which was used to access pornography.

Richard Ferguson told police officers in an interview he had a sexual attraction to children aged between six and seven he could not control.

He was convicted of sexual assault against a female aged under 13 and three offences of making indecent images back in 2015, for which he received eight years in prison and a sexual harm prevention order for an indefinite period.

One term of that order was to produce any devices to police officers for inspection whenever requested.

Upon his release on March 8 this year, he was placed in a bail hostel and during a visit from officers just over two weeks later, he told them he had been watching pornography on a mobile phone, which was against the rules of the hostel despite his claims that “everyone did it.”

When officers took his phone they found a sim card wedged between the phone and its case which had not been registered with them.

It was interrogated and found to have one category A image and extreme pornography on it.

Concerned, officers attended Ferguson’s father’s address to speak to him.

He said when he dropped Ferguson at the hostel he gave him a Toshiba laptop and a Sony mobile phone that had previously belonged to his brother.

Though Ferguson swiftly returned these items as he did not want them, they were never registered with the police.

Ferguson, 39, has 10 previous offences, beginning in 2000 when he was given a superivision order for sexual assault against a female under 14, then in 2006 he was given a community order for possessing indecent images of children and having them to distribute.

He admitted three breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.

Sentencing at Preston Crown Court, Judge Simon Medland said: “By your own actions you are presently recalled and will be recalled for probably another seven years.

“When you were released on license you conducted yourself in a way which u well knew to be unlawful and improper.

"The rules were in place to help you break the cycle of paedophile offending and here you were breaking it in a very deliberate way.

“To your credit, you have made full admissions and you were candid with the officers.

“Because of your current status, I cannot impose a consecutive sentence, which otherwise I would have done.”

Judge Medland sentenced Ferguson, of St Peter’s Street, Blackburn, to 18 months in prison.

He was also given notification requirements for 10 years, though was already on these for life from previous offending.