A PAEDOPHILE living in a tent in Bow Street has been jailed for two years.

Kevin Eardley, 55, also known as Kevin Jones, was jailed by Swansea Crown Court for failing to notify authorities if he was going to stay in a house where a child lived.

The court heard how registered sex offender Eardley repeatedly failed to notify police that he was staying overnight in the homes of families with children.

On three separate occasions he went to stay with people who he knew had children without telling the police about his activities – meaning the authorities were not able to inform the families involved.

When police tracked Eardley down to a tent in Bow Street where he was, he told them he had "forgotten" about the requirement to notify them.

Eardley who is a former resident of Cardigan and Caernarfon was jailed in 2012 for six years after being convicted of 13 sexual offences involving two young girls over a 10-year period.

He was also placed on the sex offender register for life following that case.

As part of the registration requirements he not only has to tell police where he is living but also of any stays at address where children live.

The first breach of this condition occurred in December 2020 when Eardley was living in Holyhead and went to stay with a friend he made through their shared interest in fishing, who knew nothing about his past.

The friend, who had three young children, only discovered the truth after seeing a letter addressed to Kevin Eardley and searched the internet.

Eardley then left Anglesey and settled in Aberystwyth.

The court heard that the second breach happened November 2021 when Eardley travelled all the way to Northamptonshire and turning up uninvited at the door of a woman he had met on Instagram who had a four-year-old child.

The third breach happened just weeks later when the 55-year-old went to stay with a woman he had met through an online fishing community.

The police were alerted to his behaviour and went looking for him, finding him living in a tent in Bow Street.

When questioned he said he had forgotten "forgotten" about the requirement to notify the police if he was going to stay in a house where a person under 18 lived.

Eardley pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with notification requirements when the case came to be sentenced at Swansea Crown Court, but refused to appear in the dock, instead staying in his cell.

Judge Geraint Walters described Eardley’s behaviour as a "disturbing example of deliberate and repeated non-compliance" with the requirements of sexual notification regime and he said he thought the defendant had been "playing cat and mouse with the authorities".

Eardley was sentenced to two years in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.