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A CONVICTED paedophile has been sent to prison for refereeing a children’s football game and teaching a young boy a sexual gesture.
Registered sex offender Brian Tapper, 56, from Newport was barred from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 after being jailed in 2020.
He was locked up three years ago for trying to contact 13-year-old girls online after being caught by paedophile hunters and undercover police officers.
Tapper was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) following that conviction which prevented him from having unsupervised contact with underage children.
The defendant, formerly of Pontypool, breached that condition on July 20 when he refereed a children’s football match played in the street where he lived in Newport.
Prosecutor Susan Ferrier said Tapper also taught one of the players a sexual gesture.
The defendant put his finger through a circle he’s made with his other hand, she told Cardiff Crown Court.
Tapper’s neighbours and the children’s parents were “totally unaware” that Tapper was a sex offender.
His offending only came to light when he told his probation officer he’d been a ref in the street football game.
Tapper pleaded guilty to being in breach of a SHPO.
Miss Ferrier said that, as well as being jailed for 14 months three years ago, the defendant also had multiple previous convictions for exposure which dated back to 1989.
He was also handed a suspended prison sentence in January this year for being in breach of a SHPO after he admitted using Snapchat without retaining the messaging app’s history.
Ben Waters representing Tapper said his client’s offending last month had shown “a lack of intelligence”.
He asked the court to take into account the defendant’s early guilty plea.
Judge Lucy Crowther told Tapper: “This was a very serious and persistent breach.
“It involved contact with children and you actually engaging with them on a personal level and you showed a sexual gesture.”
She jailed Tapper for 18 months for the SHPO breach and six months on top for being in breach of the suspended prison sentence she imposed earlier this year.
The defendant was told he would serve half of his two-year term in custody before being released on licence.
She imposed on him a new SHPO to last for another 10 years.