It was the latest in a series of flagrant breaches of Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs) – court orders designed to restrict the activities of sex offenders and protect the public from further harm.

Champion, previously of Chatham but now of Folkestone, was made subject to an SHPO in 2017 for sexual offences not disclosed at his most recent hearing.

In 2020, he was found to have breached the conditions of that order multiple times, including by lying about having a mobile phone with internet access – with 18 indecent images found on the device. He also failed to declare several changes of address and a new bank account.

Branding him a “risk to the public”, a judge jailed him for three years and four months.

But prison proved little deterrent. In 2024, Champion was again back in court for multiple breaches of his SHPO after police discovered he had been in contact with children, deleted browsing history on his phone and was living at a different address to the one given to officers.

He was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison and released on licence on September 1.

Just a week later, during an unannounced visit on September 8, police found he had been searching online for “teen boys”. Three indecent images were discovered on his phone, and he was hauled back to court two days later, where he admitted one count of making indecent photographs of a child.

As he had breached his licence conditions, he was immediately recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Sentencing for the new offence was adjourned until October 21 at Margate Magistrates’ Court so probation could prepare reports. Champion, of Marine Parade Mews, appeared there via video link from prison.

Terry Knox, prosecuting, told the court Champion had been found with three category C images – a lower severity than the most graphic kind – on his phone on September 8.

Mr Knox added: “It was an unannounced visit, and a search of his mobile device found he’d been searching for cute boys and teen boys.

“A gallery of images had been returned by the search, and they were boys only and had a nudity tag [attached to them].

“There was also a second page of gallery pictures, so he had spent some time on the web, and there were various thumbnails showing boys with naked bottoms and in erotic poses.

“One had his hips forward, and he was thought to be about five years old and was looking at the camera.”

Defending, Scott Neilson said his client had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and had been remanded since September 10, with 14 months left to serve on the sentence he had been recalled to complete.

“It is a bitter blow that he’s got to serve the whole sentence, but he’s being positive and will take every opportunity while he’s in there,” he said.

“He will not be released until December 2026, and then he will be on licence.”

Mr Neilson added Champion had been abused as a young child, explaining: “There are issues from that.”

Magistrates noted Champion had accessed the images within days of his release and jailed him for 120 days, to run concurrently with his existing sentence – meaning he will serve no extra time behind bars.

They also ordered that he remain on the sex offenders register for the next seven years and that his phone be destroyed.