A convicted sex offender borrowed his mother’s mobile to search for images of underage children after police had seized his own phone following the discovery he had been in communication with 12-year-old girls.

Kris Maisey was on a suspended sentence at the time having previously been caught with a haul of child sex abuse images and was also the subject of a sexual harm prevention order designed to control is online activities.

Swansea Crown Court heard that in August last year 32-year-old Maisey was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for 24 months after pleading guilty to making – that is possessing – more than 1,700 indecent images of children.

He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for the same length of time.

Ian Wright, prosecuting, said in August this year police officers carrying out a routine check on Maisey in the community examined the defendant’s phone and found evidence he had been communicating with two 12-year-old girls.

The Samsung phone was seized for further checks.

The court heard a detailed search of the phone found around 1,000 indecent images – including Category A images which show the most serious kinds of rape and sexual abuse – and also that Maisey had joined the Tinder-style dating website Wink using a false name.

As part of his SHPO the defendant is prohibited from creating social media and other online accounts using anything other than his real name.

The prosecutor said when police returned a week after the original visit to arrest Maisey for possession of the indecent images they found him using a phone he had not told them about, a mobile which it turned out he had borrowed from his mother.

An examination of this second phone found the defendant had been making internet searches for material about underage girls.

He subsequently gave a “no comment” interview to officers

Kris Maisey, of Norton Road, Penygroes, Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of indecent images and two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Maisey that in August last year a judge had given him a chance, but instead of taking that chance he had continued to access images of child sex abuse and had “blatantly” breached the terms of his sexual harm prevention order.

With a 20% discount for his guilty pleas Maisey was sentenced to 20 months in prison for the new offences and the judge activated eight months of the previously-imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 28 months.

He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence. The judge also made Maisey subject of a new 10-year SHPO.