Description
A mum-of-two was horrified to discover that her partner was a convicted child sex offender.
The woman made inquiries with police in April this year after Andrew Edgson had vanished from her life and she learnt he was in prison.
She told them she had been in a relationship with him for 18 months and did not know why he was in jail.
Putting 38-year-old Edgson behind bars for 12 months the judge, Recorder David Knifton, QC, said: The police notified her, to her utter shock and distress, that you had been convicted and sentenced for serious sexual offences upon a child.
She disclosed that between the date of your conviction - of which she was unaware - and date of sentence - of which she was unaware - you had been living with her and her children.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he had formed a relationship with the woman in 2019 and it became serious and he moved into her Bootle home.
In December last year he disappeared but a few days later he rang her from prison claiming he was in a police station "sorting something out."
The judge said: You again misled her about your whereabouts and the circumstances of your detention.
She was horrified to discover that you had been convicted of a serious sexual offence you had not told her about and clearly thought, with some justification, that the only purpose of that failure to disclose such a conviction was to continue your relationship with her and her children.
These failures by you to disclose to her the true circumstances led to her to feel anxious and distressed. She has contemplated moving house because you know where she and her children live.
She feels utterly betrayed by someone she describes as dangerously manipulative.
Recorder Knifton told him: You flagrantly breached the registration scheme from the outset.
Edgson, of no fixed address, but formerly of Huyton, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with registration requirements under Sexual Offences provisions.
Chris Taylor, prosecuting, said that Edgson was jailed for 14 months in December 2020 for the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in early 2019.
Under the terms of the Sexual Offences Register he had to tell police where he was living but he failed to reveal he was living with the woman and her two children following his release.
Jim Smith, defending, said that Edgsons actions had been selfish and stupid and committed because he did not his relationship with the new partner destroyed.