A MAN with a history of downloading thousands of indecent images of children has pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order made to curb his future activities.

Alan Catherall, 60, of Coast Road, Holywell, was jailed in 2016 for 32 months and ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for life after he downloaded the images, some of which were of very young children.

An indefinite sexual harm prevention order was made at the time, after the court heard he was prosecuted for similar offences in 2010, when he received a suspended prison sentence and a previous sexual harm prevention order was made.

To make matters worse while on bail he went out and bought another computer and did the same thing again. Police found those images during a routine check.

Appearing from custody at Mold Crown Court, Catherall pleaded guilty to two breaches of a sexual harm prevention order after he was found to have file sharing software on his mobile phone and virtual private network (VPN) software designed to enable users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

Judge Rhys Rowland ordered a pre-sentence report to be carried out and adjourned the case until June 14.

Catherall was remanded in custody.