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Predatory paedophile moved from Dartford to Maidstone to get close to young girls

A predatory paedophile - banned for 10 years from getting close to young girls - wormed his way into the lives of two unsuspecting teens within 18 months of his jail release.

Sinister Adrian Scarlett, from Maidstone, had posed as a woman online to get a 13-year-old girl to send him inappropriate pictures.

Adrian Scarlett. Picture: Kent Police
Adrian Scarlett. Picture: Kent Police

The 44-year-old was jailed and then banned from being alone with any girl under 16.

But Maidstone Crown Court heard how the pervert - who moved from Dartford to Maidstone - got a gardening job at the home of a mother with a teenage girl.

Mary Jacobson, prosecuting told how Scarlett kept his sordid past hidden as he connived to have unfettered access to the house and the teenager.

He then talked a pal into employing the girl and her 15-year-old friend at a takeaway restaurant.

She said the mother then became concerned because of his attention to her daughter although she was unaware of his sex convictions.

Maidstone Crown Court. Stock picture
Maidstone Crown Court. Stock picture

The police were alerted and he was arrested.

Now Scarlett, of St Peter's Street, has been jailed for two years after he admitted twice breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

The judge, Recorder James Mulholland QC, told him that "in less than 18 months from the SHPO being in place, he had began employment as a gardener for a woman in Maidstone.

The prosecutor had revealed Scarlett had abused the normal "employer-employee " relationship to allow himself "extensive" unsupervised access to the child when she was alone in the house.

Scarlett, who also worked as a delivery driver at another takeaway, had also collected the child from school.

"He appears to have no understanding of the gravity of his actions..."

In 2015, Scarlett, was found guilty of causing a girl aged 13 to 17 to engage in pornography and meeting a girl under 16 following grooming.

The court had heard, after meeting the victim at a house in Downham on November 14 2013, Scarlett used a fake Facebook account under the name of ‘Ami’ to make contact with her.

He claimed ‘Ami’ worked for Littlewoods and if the girl sent him two topless photos of herself they would help get her work as a model.

Recorder Mulholland has also issued a new SHPO to run indefinitely.

DC Wes Marston of the Maidstone offender management unit said: "Scarlett has previously been given every opportunity to engage in rehabilitation and was subject to strict measures designed to reduce the risk he posed to children.

"He has been unable to adhere to these restrictions and actively set out to reoffend. Scarlett has continued to demonstrate a determination to have unsupervised contact with children and also used the internet to communicate with young girls.

"He appears to have no understanding of the gravity of his actions.

"Orders such as these are passed by the courts to protect children from harm and as this case shows, Kent Police will do everything we can to ensure those who ignore them face the consequences of their actions."

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