DESPITE being warned on his previous Crown Court appearance that he was being given a last chance, a convicted paedophile has again been given a suspended sentence after admitting offences.

Callum Vere, 22, of Basildon, appeared before Judge Richard Conley for sentencing yesterday (Thursday, 6 February) on five charges involving sexual offences.

On each of the charges he was given a two year jail sentence, suspended for two years. All the sentences run concurrently.

He was also issued with a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Vere, who as a teenager worked in local community radio, serving Basildon and Thurrock, appeared at the same Crown Court in March 2023, accused of breaching a previous two-year suspended sentence, issued in June 2022, after being found guilty of three counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornography.

He was placed on the sex offenders registers and slapped with a sexual harm prevention order which required him to inform police of any social media accounts or electronic devices capable of storing images.

Police monitoring that discovered several breaches and he was brought back before the court.

Taking a lenient view at the time, Judge Andrew Hurst, gave Vere an opportunity to prove he could follow the terms of his order.

The judge said: "I am giving you this time to demonstrate your willingness and cooperation in addressing your mental health.

"You must enthusiastically do all you can to help others get you well and you need to keep and maintain your compliance to the sexual harm prevention order.

"If there is no more offending, then we will look me not having to send you immediately to prison.

"This is very much in your control now, otherwise if you mess it up, then I don't have any choice left to me but to send you to prison."

Vere suffers from autism and attention deficit order. But the judge insisted he "must understand the impact these offences have on children".