A PAEDOPHILE has failed in a Human Rights Act bid to overturn a ban on entering public parks, swimming pools or playgrounds throughout the country in the first case of its kind.

A Sex Offender Order was issued under the Crime and Disorder Act by a magistrate against Peter Lander Jones, 64, of Blackburn in July 1999 after he approached a young boy in Springfield Park, Rochdale.

A month earlier he had been convicted of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old boy and placed on probation. He has, over the years, built up a strong of 30 convictions for "sexual offences against young males" both in England and abroad. The order barred him from public parks, playgrounds and swimming pools throughout England and Wales and from "enticing, approaching or communicating with" any person under the age of 16.

The order was made to last for life, but Jones can apply to vary it after five years.

Jones challenged the order, which was granted at the request of the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, but his appeal to Manchester Crown Court was dismissed in February last year. Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mr Justice Astill at London's High Court upheld the Crown Court's order, dismissing claims that the order amounted to a violation of his human rights.

Lawyers for Jones argued the admissions of evidence tending to show his "propensity" to commit sex crimes breached Article Six and Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights which enshrine the rights to privacy and a fair hearing by an impartial tribunal.

Jones attracted police attention in late June 1999 -- just a month after his latest conviction -- when he approached a 13-year-old boy at a bus stop, "engaging him in conversation and touching him on the thigh," said Lord Latham.

A few days later he was seen by police in Rochdale's Springfield Park approaching a youth "with whom he entered into conversation."

Jones' lawyers challenged evidence of a psychologist and probation officer relating to whether he was an appropriate subject for a Sex Offender Order.