A PAEDOPHILE carried on offending while attending rehab after he was given a community sentence for downloading child abuse and bestiality images.

While undergoing an offender treatment programme, Thomas James from Blackwood had stored a photo of a 15-year-old girl performing a sex act on herself with a hairbrush.

He was caught last summer when the Gwent Police officers supervising him in the community found the material on a Samsung mobile phone.

They then discovered that the 25-year-old defendant had tried to start “sexual discussions” with underage children online, prosecutor Joshua Scouller told Cardiff Crown Court.

He had also installed and deleted applications like DuckDuckGo and Snapchat, something he was prohibited from doing.

James, of Glanhowy Road, Wyllie, was sentenced to a 30-month community order and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) in November 2020.

He began his latest offending shortly after that.

The defendant admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, possession of category A, B and C indecent photographs of children and being in breach of a SHPO.

James also pleaded guilty to possession of 47 extreme pornographic images showing women having sex with dogs.

The offences took place between January 21, 2021 and August 28, 2023.

His barrister Harry Baker asked the court to give his client credit for his guilty pleas.

Judge Paul Hobson told James: “I have no doubt that your offending is motivated by a sexual interest in children.

“The problem for you is stark – if you carry on down this path you will end up spending longer and longer terms of imprisonment.”

The defendant was jailed for two years and eight months and told he would serve half of that term before being released on licence.

The time James has spent remanded in custody since his arrest will count toward that sentence.

He must also pay a statutory victim surcharge.