Judge says Northampton paedophile who's been offending for 55 years is 'a danger to young people' and sends him back to jail

A man who began his criminal career back in 1968 is behind bars once again after a police officer discovered he’d been accessing Instagram, TikTok, Bebo, Signal and Snapchat.

Kevin Thompson, aged 65, has 162 previous convictions including several for sexual offences against children.

Northampton Crown Court heard at a sentencing hearing on Thursday (Decemember 14) that he had begun offending in 1968 when he was just 10.

In the 1970s he indecently assaulted a young boy and he was sent to a borstal for forcibly having sex with another boy.

He also has multiple convictions for theft, fraud and driving matters.

In 2002 he was jailed for 12 years with a five-year extended sentence for raping a child.

After his release in 2018 he was made the subject of a lifelong sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) banning him from owning a mobile phone unless police were aware of it, and from accessing social media sites or having an email address without express permission from specialist police officers.

On November 1 this year his MOSOVO manager – the police officer charged with enforcing the SHPO – went to Thompson’s house in Moore Street, Northampton, to conduct a routine visit.

The defendant showed the officer a Nokia mobile that he had previously declared as his only phone. But the police constable spotted a charger plugged into the wall that did not appear to match the Nokia.

Thompson was arrested and during a search of his house, a Samsung Galaxy was discovered under his pillow.

Officers found a new email address as well as accounts for social media apps including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Bebo Live and Signal. He later admitted he’d been using the phone since his release from jail. He had also breached his order on several previous occasions between 2019 and 2022.

In mitigation, Thompson’s legal counsel Daniel Green said he had had issues with other residents in the place he was living and had hoped to be returned to jail.

He pleaded guilty to four breaches of the SHPO.

His Honour Judge David Herbert KC, sentencing, said: “The reality is that you are a sexual offender and a danger to young people."

He gave him a two-year jail term.