A PAEDOPHILE breached his court order by wiping his phone’s internet history - which he claims happened after it was reset.

Paul Thompson has been given another community order for breaching his sexual harm prevention order given to him in 2018.

The 27-year-old of Plumleys, Pitsea, had previously been jailed in January 2018 after police found indecent images of children as young as seven while they carried out a monitoring visit at his previous home in Witham in May 2017.

Forensic examination of his computer equipment found 245 indecent images of children including 28 category A - the most serious kind - and 18 images of extreme pornography.

Thompson was jailed for one year and three months and was made subject of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order for eight years.

However in March 2019 he attended a probation meeting where he said he had reset his phone due to difficulties downloading an application, and was told that was a breach of his order as it cleared the internet history.

Subsequent examination of the phone found there was no history between March 3 and 13.

Following an investigation, it could not be determined if Thompson had knowingly wiped the history of if any further indecent material had been accessed by him.

At Basildon Crown Court on Friday, Thompson was sentenced to a 12 month community order with 20 hours rehabilitation and 40 hours of unpaid work after admitting the breach.

Judge Ian Graham told Thompson the order was “very important”.

He added: “You must play your part by not behaving in the way you have behaved.”