EDWARDS: RESTRICTED PERVERT WENT ON SEX TOURIST HOLIDAY

A pervert was holdaying at notorious sex tourist hotspots while he should have been signing on as a sex offender, a court heard.

Stephen Edwards was locked up for two years in 2001 after police found he had nearly 23,000 child porn pictures on his computer.

The 45-year-old was released after serving just 12 months of the sentence on condition that he inform police if he intended to travel.

He was also supposed to sign on as a sex offender for ten years.

But the computer analyst was sunning himself in south East Asia.

He made regular visits to countries known for their popularity with sex tourists.

Members of the Police Protection Team carried out a random check on his Soho flat and were told he had moved to Bangkok.

When Edwards realised police were trying to contact him he flew back to Britain and pretended he had been staying with his parents in Surrey.

But police checked his passport and found he been to Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore.

He was carrying a picture of a five year-old-boy among an album of snaps taken in South East Asia.

Edwards admitting seven counts of ‘failing to comply with a notification requirement’ under the Sexual Offences Act.

He was given an 18 month community rehabilitation order when he will be instructed to ‘address his offending behaviour’.

Mr Justice Bean told him: ‘These were serious breaches of a notification order.

‘Such orders are important and must be complied with. If you fail to do so again then you would most likely be sent back to prison.’

Edwards, of Salmon Street, Colindale, admitted seven breaches between January 5, 2005 and October 15, 2006.

He wept with relief when he realised he was not being sent back to jail.
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