Lowestoft man jailed

A LOWESTOFT man who flouted a court order banning him from spending time alone with children by allowing a schoolgirl to visit his flat has been jailed for 12 months.

A LOWESTOFT man who flouted a court order banning him from spending time alone with children by allowing a schoolgirl to visit his flat has been jailed for 12 months.

Michael Parker was made the subject of a five year Sexual Offences Prevention Order in 2007 because of police concerns about him in relation to young girls, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Michael Crimp, prosecuting, said that despite this order Parker had entertained a 12-year-old girl at his flat.

He said the girl told police that she had visited Parker's flat on an off the previous year and he had given her cigarettes and tobacco.

Parker, 58, of High Street, Lowestoft admitted three breaches of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and was jailed for 12 months less 63 days he has already spent in custody.

Sentencing him Judge David Goodin said Parker had deliberately flouted the SOPO which had been made by magistrates following concerns by Humberside police that he could place himself in a position, because of his 'weaknesses or tendencies', where he might corrupt or harm young girls with whom he came into contact.

Andrew Thompson for Parker said his client accepted there were more than three visits to his flat by the 12-year-old girl over a period of four to five months.

He said that Parker claimed the girl had manipulated him to the extent that she had threatened to tell her father something inappropriate had happened if Parker didn't keep giving her cigarettes and money.