A “VERY dangerous” self-confessed paedophile was ordered to live within 250 yards of a York primary school when he was released from prison.

York Crown Court heard how within days of arriving at Southview probation hostel on Boroughbridge Road, Phillip John Kirk, 25, was evading police checks on his use of the internet, and was researching York schools.

He was on parole partway through an eight-year extended prison sentence for having indecent pictures of children, and had previously burgled a school and stole a child’s uniform which he used for sexual gratification.

The hostel is close to Poppleton Road Primary School and Kirk is forbidden to go within 100 metres of any primary school under a lifelong sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) which also restricts his use of mobile phones and the internet.

He has 56 previous convictions, all involving a sexual interest in children, and has in the past written to Theresa May when she was Home Secretary asking her to make sex with children legal.

Jailing him for 28 months for his latest offences, Judge Simon Hickey told Kirk: “You must be classed as a very dangerous individual, given your record and what you have done.”

Kirk, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two breaches of his SHPO, by having a smart phone without telling the police, and installing software designed to prevent police monitoring his online activities.

He has been recalled to continue serving his 2015 sentence.

A spokesman for the Prison and Probation Service which runs the hostel said after the hearing he could not comment on individual cases.

“Our priority is to protect the public and sex offenders released on licence are robustly risk assessed and subject to a strict set of conditions.

“They are monitored closely and any offender who breaches their licence conditions faces going back to prison.”

Control measures can involve technology such as electronic tags, curfews at certain times of the day and unannounced supervision visits from probation and police officers.

Andrew Horton, prosecuting, told York Crown Court the offender management authorities placed Kirk at the hostel when he was released from prison on January 2.

Hostel staff searched his room on January 21 and found handwritten lists of independent girls schools and nurseries/schools and an illicit smartphone with search terms including “nude kids”, “clothing girls York” and “schools York.”

They also found a smartphone with several user accounts on it and specialist software to hide his internet activity. Police have yet to analyse the phone, which Kirk claimed he had bought that day.

Defence barrister Ian Hudson said any sexual activity Kirk had planned had been “nipped in the bud” by the discoveries. Kirk had not contacted any children.

In 2015, Laura Addy, for the CPS, told York Crown Court Kirk had written to the Home Secretary saying: “I have been a paedophile since the age of 13 and openly a paedophile for the last three years” and asking her to make sex with children legal.

He had been released from prison on November 14, 2014, and was arrested on December 5, 2014.

Despite being closely monitored by police and probation officers, while at liberty he had downloaded more than 1,000 indecent images of young children, obtained sex toys, researched youth clubs and looked on the internet for details about Guides Brownies, Rainbows and school and police uniforms.

Kirk has spent most of his adult life behind bars.