A WIDNES paedophile has appeared before the courts again after breaching a number of orders.

Daniel Smith was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register back in 2019.

This was after he was convicted of making indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornographic images.

The 33-year-old appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to failing to comply with notification requirements and two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Prosecuting, Valeriya Tomkinson said how on September 19 of this year, Smith, of Church Street, Widnes, was visited by two police officers for his sex offender management.

His mobile phone, a Samsung S3, was examined and officers noticed that there was a device linked to his Google account, a Huawei phone.

Smith said he no longer had this phone and had disposed of it, but he had not reported this to officers which he was required to do so.

The defendant’s internet history also revealed that he had searched for Dropbox on two occasions and his account on there was linked to an email that was not registered with police.

Ms Tomkinson said how this was a requirement and that Smith accepted it was a breach.

He was subsequently arrested.

Smith told officers that his Dropbox account was new and that it was not one that was used in the offences he was previously convicted of.

He also said how he had sold his Huawei and had informed his old offender manager he had changed his mobile number and assumed he would have understood this meant he had disposed of the old device.

Defending, Mark Lever said: “No further offences of sexual nature have been committed.

“He is somebody who has not complied with requirements, but this can be put down more to carelessness and complacency.”

Concluding, the chair of the magistrates’ bench said: “We have taken a lot of consideration, we do feel that these offences are so serious that they do pass the custodial threshold.

“But we believe that there is a reasonable prosect of rehabilitation.”

Smith was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

He must also complete 100 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.