A previously jailed sex offender is back behind bars after breaching the terms of restrictive court orders by using aliases on social media sites on the internet a court has heard.

Keith Fagan was jailed for two years at Durham Crown Court in 2014 after admitting charges relating to the attempted incitement of girls under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

He was caught after he began talking in a sexualised manner to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl online.

It emerged it was a decoy profile posted by undercover police to trap internet paedophiles.

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As part of the 2014 sentence, Fagan, up to then a casino boss living in Belmont, Durham, was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and registration as a sex offender, both “until further order”.

Fagan, now 65, and of Bridge Street, Bishop Auckland, has recently been back before the court, appearing via video link from prison in Hull, where he has been detained on remand.

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He admitted failure to comply with notification requirements and breaching the SHPO both between January 1, 2020, and June 27, 2023, at a hearing on September 1, having initially denied both offences a month earlier.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing that as Fagan was subject of the SHPO and sex offender registration, he received routine monitoring visits by his offender manager, one of which was on June 27 this year.

During that visit, two concealed mobile phones capable of accessing the internet were recovered, on which it was found he had accessed three messaging services, which were in use between January 2020 and the day of the monitoring visit.

On closer examination, it was found that he had used aliases to contact young females, with some of the conversation becoming sexualised.

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Nicholas Askins, in mitigation, told the court it had to be accepted they were, “persistent breaches”, but he said a lot of the messages involved were not of concern and were to family members and his employer.

“He reverted to more conventional uses of the phone.

“It was three years since the last sexualised messaging by the time the police became involved.”

Mr Askins spoke of the defendant’s many health concerns, including a cancer diagnosis, and osteo-arthritic and hip issues, while he is awaiting knee replacement.

He added that the defendant has a good work record and also served in the forces for a number of years.

Judge James Adkin told Fagan his 2014 conviction, “cast a long shadow”, resulting in the limitations imposed by the SHPO and registration requirements that accompanied the sentence.

The judge described the breaches of the orders as, “certainly, persistent conduct”, and he said, that while there was no evidence any of the individuals the defendant chatted with were underage, the use of aliases by the defendant, “strongly indicates to me your intention was to meet children and groom them over the internet.”

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He imposed a 20-month prison sentence to act as a deterrent to anyone else tempted to use similar conduct.

Judge Adkin added: “It would lack teeth not to impose the sentence immediately.”

He also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the devices seized from Fagan.