A PAEDOPHILE convicted of a grooming offence is back behind bars after he used his mobile phone to join dating website Plenty of Fish.

By registering on the adult platform, Andrew Kay, 49, of no fixed abode, Newport, was in breach of a sexual harm prevention order.

This had prohibited him from using a mobile capable of accessing the internet without first notifying the police within three days of getting the phone.

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Kay had also persistently failed to comply with the notification requirements he was subject to after having to register as a sex offender.

Since his release from custody, the defendant has been the victim of violence at the hands of the “homeless community in Newport” and is now “safer” in prison.

Kay was advised, his barrister Scott Bowen told Cardiff Crown Court, to leave the city and live in the Welsh capital, but has since moved back to Newport.

Prosecutor Richard Ace said the defendant was jailed in May 2018 for a grooming offence.

He was sent to prison for 12 months at Newport Crown Court after being snared by online paedophile hunting group Justice for Kids.

Kay wrote a series of sexually explicit messages to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he had befriended on Facebook.

But it was a fake profile and although he arranged to meet ‘her’ at Newport railway station, he did not go.

Kay pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following grooming.

Mr Ace said the defendant was jailed for 12 weeks in September for his fifth sex offender register breach.

Kay pleaded guilty to the latest breaches which were committed on Monday, November 11.

Mr Bowen, mitigating, said his client had been homeless since his release from custody and was currently ineligible for state-funded accommodation because of an overpayment of housing benefit.

His barrister told the court: “Life is extremely difficult for him. He is living on the streets.

“The defendant has been the subject of attack by the homeless community in Newport.”

Mr Bowen added: “It is a remarkably sad state of affairs that he is safer in custody where he is free from attack, he is warm and has three meals a day.”

Judge Nicola Jones jailed Kay for 10 months and told him he had to pay a £149 victim surcharge upon his release from prison.