A REPEAT sex offender who has used two names and evades police attempts to monitor him has been jailed.

Simon David Halliday, 46, was arrested at his place of work after detectives realised he had been downloading indecent images of children again, York Crown Court heard.

Judge Simon Hickey said they included sexual images of girls aged six to nine, including one being raped.

Halliday told the court he wanted to change his way of life.

He has 36 previous convictions, including for distributing indecent images of children and failure to comply with court orders aimed at enabling police to monitor him.

He has used the name Simon David Field during some of his offences.

The 46-year-old man from Sledgate, Rillington near Malton, pleaded guilty to three charges of having indecent images of children.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order by deleting details of his internet history on his mobile phone.

He was jailed for 22 months. He was also made subject to a new 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and remains on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

The SHPO continues a ban on him contacting children under 16 or being in their company as well as a list of measures aimed at enabling police to monitor his use of the internet.

Ashleigh Metcalfe, prosecuting, said Halliday was first caught with indecent images of children in 2004 and had been convicted of distributing them in 2016.

On January 16, a detective went to his house and seized his mobile phone which contained evidence that he had downloaded eight of the worst category of sexual images of children, 13 of the middle category and 52 of the least serious category.

It also contained evidence he had been searching the internet for images of children having sex with each other or with family members.

Halliday had deleted the images although he was forbidden to delete his internet history, but police digital forensic experts found them.

Halliday, representing himself, said: "When I look at them (the pictures) I am disgusted."

He said he regretted his actions and had asked during a previous prison sentence, on his release from prison and since being remanded in January to go on rehabilitation courses to help his mental health. But he hadn't got any help.

"I would like to live a normal lifestyle as a normal human being," he said.

He had told police he had got the latest images from people in an online chatroom he visited to "fantasize with like minded people."

The judge took into account Halliday's claim he wanted to reform himself.