A MARRIED man with a fascination of child abuse pictures is behind bars after being caught downloading the sick material - for the second time.

Stephen Sisson was jailed for 12 months when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court for making and possessing more than 100 illegal images.

The 55-year-old pervert, of Norby Estate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, was locked up for six months in 2008 for almost identical offending.

At the time, he was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) which put restrictions on his use of computers.

Under the order, Sisson was prohibited from using any device with internet access unless it was in a controlled situation.

Yet, in July last year when the father-of-three was arrested for unconnected matters, police found indecent photos and cartoons on his two mobile phones.

In an interview, Sisson denied breaching the SOPO, but admitted it along with a string of other offences when he reached court.

During a later interview with a probation officer, he confessed to getting sexual gratification from the pictures.

His lawyer, Zoe Passfield, told the court: “He accepts fully his wrongdoing, and accepts that there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

“The pre-sentence report makes reference to, perhaps, an attempted justification of his behaviour by reference to his ongoing feelings of stress and anxiety, and his wife’s health problems.

“I have spoke to him about it, and he says he puts that forward as a possible contributory factor, but he doesn’t seek to blame it on anything other than his own choice.”

Sisson pleaded guilty to breaching the SOPO, making indecent images of children, possessing prohibited images and possessing extreme pornography.

Judge Simon Phillips, QC, told him: “The author of the pre-sentence report says that you have a lack of awareness in terms of the impact of the sexual abuse on children when viewing images of this nature.

“Accessing these images encourages the activity of taking such images and the furtherance of offences in relation to children.

“This was a deliberate flouting of the terms of the prevention order - an order that was designed and intended to protect children.”