A SEX offender who failed to tell police he had come to live in York has been jailed for 90 days.

Thomas Patrick Neary, 56, moved to the city when he was released part-way through a 12-month prison term for indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Harrogate, York magistrates heard.

But despite prison officers and staff at the Peaseholme Centre for the Homeless telling him he had to register with police as a sex offender, he failed to do so, said Martin Butterworth, prosecuting.

Neary pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender.

Magistrates jailed him for 90 days saying they had to protect the public.

Mr Butterworth said Neary left The Wolds Prison on March 21 and by law had to tell police his new address within three days.

He started living at the Peaseholme Centre in Stonebow, York, but did not tell the police.

He was arrested on March 29 and put before the magistrates.

His solicitor Damien Morrison said the law requiring sex offenders to register their address was very technical and he (the lawyer) had mistakenly thought Neary had 14 days to register until the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the time limit had been three days since last July.

Neary did not appreciate how quickly he had to go to the police. He had significant mental limitations, did not read and had been handed a bundle of papers as he left prison. He had told his solicitor that the centre staff had not told him he should register.

The lawyer said the centre's manager had asked him to tell the court he had checked with police about Neary registering. Neary was arrested at the centre.

The original crime for which he was sentenced at York Crown Court concerned a 14-year-old girl. At that court, Simon Kealey, prosecuting, said Neary grabbed the girl from behind on The Stray, Harrogate, on a November evening in 1998, made a sexual comment to her and indecently assaulted her. He was arrested a year later in a different town.

Simon Reevell, defending, said Neary wandered around and hoped to move to Grimsby.

Updated: 11:17 Thursday, April 18, 2002