Patrick Downey 42

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A convicted child sex attacker who keeps downloading indecent images of children was branded "dangerous".

Patrick Downey, 40, has been in and out of jail for the last two decades because of his twisted perversion.

Last year police caught him with 426 sick photos, including one of a boy aged just four being raped.

Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said: "The offence plainly is bad enough in and of itself, but in your case it's particularly grave, because of your history of this type of behaviour.

"On any view, by any measure, you are plainly someone who has a very serious and unhealthy interest in young children.

"You are, by the strict definition of that word, frankly a paedophile."

Liverpool Crown Court heard police raided Downey's home in Peel Road, Bootle on May 13 last year.

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said they seized a Samsung mobile phone, a laptop and a MacBook.

On the devices they discovered 98 Category A images - the most serious category showing child rape - one involving a boy as young as four.

There were 178 Category B images, one involving the abuse of a toddler, and 150 Category C images, one of a boy aged three to four.

Downey admitted three counts of downloading and one count of possessing indecent images of children.

Possessing Category A indecent images has a sentencing range of 26 weeks up to three years in sentencing guidelines.

Downey has 46 previous convictions, which include offences of dishonesty but also multiple sexual offences.

He was put on the Sex Offenders Register in 2003 when he was convicted of gross indecency with a child and indecent images offences.

In 2007 he was hit with a lifelong Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) after allowing a 16-year-old boy to stay at his home.

He was convicted of downloading indecent images again in 2008, and then again in 2014, when he was also caught distributing them.

On that occasion, Downey, formerly of Wellfield Road, Walton, was found to be a "dangerous offender", as defined in law.

He was jailed for three years, with an extended five years on licence - meaning he was still on licence when he downloaded these latest images.

Downey was jailed for two years and eight months in March 2019, after he lied about his identity to get a job at a Blackpool hotel while on licence.

He had used his husband's name to get the managerial role at the hotel, and a judge pointed out the job "gave him direct access to children

Downey, then 38, was caught out after police learned he had moved from Merseyside without telling them - in breach of notification requirements.

That sixth breach on his record also involved him meeting up with another registered sex offender, while he was at the tourist resort.

John Weate, defending, today said Downey no longer stood by comments he made in a pre-sentence report and took responsibility for the offences.

Mr Weate asked for full credit of one third for his client's early guilty pleas.

He accepted Downey was assessed to be a "high risk" and said he understood the judge might again conclude he was dangerous.