Paedophile Dominic Cantley given final chance at Preston Crown Court after breaching order six times

A convicted paedophile from Blackpool has been spared jail despite his sixth breach of a court order banning him from having contact with children.

Dominic Cantley, 32, admitted his latest contravention of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order when he appeared at Preston Crown Court.

Judge Heather Lloyd decided not to send him to prison immediately, but warned it was probably his last chance.

The court heard Cantley, of Coronation Street, Blackpool, had been drunk when he struck up a conversation with a boy under the age of 16 on social media about football, breaching the conditions of an order imposed in 2017.

Judge Lloyd told him: "On five occasions since (then) you have been convicted of breaching it. Now this is the sixth. You don't seem to learn.

"The fact that you were watching a football match and wanted to celebrate with other supporters is fine - but not with a teenage boy."

The judge heard from a defence barrister that Cantley was "stupid at times." But it was stressed that the conversation with the boy "was not a sexual conversation in any way." It was purely a conversation about football.

Cantley, a former care worker for the disabled and elderly, was said to have a "lack of self control" and a habit of doing "stupid stuff." He was "terrified" of going back to prison after being sent down for 22 weeks by Blackpool Magistrates in May 2018 for breaching the same order. He was also prepared to close down all his social media.

Judge Lloyd said that what a pre-sentence report said about Cantley's physical and mental health concerned her.  She added: "Your lack of self control will give any judge cause for concern when considering the safety of children.

"The conversation you had (with the boy) had echoes of previous breaches, particularly around football.

"Nothing may have happened between you and this young man. But what you did can't be seen in isolation from your previous behaviour."

Giving Cantley a 12 month prison term suspended for 18 months, together with a requirement to do 40 days of rehabilitation activities, she told him: "You might bear in mind that next time - if there is a next time - the judge will say you have been given an opportunity and not taken it today.

"So this is likely to be your last sentence out of custody."

Back in 2018 Cantley was sent to jail for illegally befriending a 13-year-old boy after claiming he was a junior football coach.

The offence breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed in 2017 for attempting to engage a boy under the age of 16 in sexual activity. The order was meant to prevent him from having any contact with children under 16 without their parents' consent.