A MURDERER who killed a sex worker is back behind bars after he started contacting women on a dating site and a Pagan website.

Shaun Sullivan served 18 years in prison for the murder in 2001 but had already been recalled on licence twice before he set up the online profile in order to satisfy his sexual needs.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 51-year-old told police he was using the profile when they attended his home during a routine check on his activities.

A search of his digital devices also showed he was speaking to sex workers just weeks after his latest release from prison.

Jon Harley, prosecuting, said the defendant was using the online name of Shaunsully07 on the dating websites.

He said: “The defendant was convicted in 2001 of the murder of a sex worker and some years later, once the relevant provisions were put in place, he was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order and notification order.

“As part of that, he had to register any alias he was using to speak to people on the internet.”

The court heard how Sullivan told police he had contact with a woman on a Pagan website and that was when his unregistered alias was discovered.

Mr Harley said Sullivan admitted to police that he had used websites to seek out females in the local area so he could meet them in person.

Sullivan was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order and notification order barring him from using fake names when he was released in July 2019.

The court heard he was recalled on prison licence in October 2019 after he deleted his internet history and told probation he had contacted several sex workers saying his ‘sexual preoccupation was extremely high’.

Mr Harley said he was again released on licence in September 2021 and breached the terms again in February when he was recalled again.

The defendant, of Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing to comply with the conditions of his notification order.

Andrew Nixon, in mitigation, said his client has been in prison for most of his life and it was the defendant who alerted the police initially to his use of the dating websites and the alias was self-generated by the site.

Recorder Gurdial Singh sentenced the convicted murderer to another nine months in custody for the ‘blatant’ breach of the notification requirements.

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