SEX offenders must obey orders designed to keep the public safe from them or go to prison, York’s top judge has warned.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, spoke as he jailed  convicted voyeur Christopher Adam Robinson.

Robinson, 38, a former Old Malton resident, had previously served an eight-month prison sentence for secretly filming women and girls using the changing room at a charity shop where he worked.

At the same time as he was jailed in 2021, he was put on a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and the sex offenders’ register.

In 2008 he had received a community order for having indecent images of children.

Kelly Clarke, prosecuting, said the order and register restricted how Robinson used the internet and forced him to comply with police monitoring.

But when officers carried out a routine visit on August 2, he didn’t do as they asked. They also discovered he had been using the internet in breach of the SHPO.

Defence solicitor advocate Kevin Blount said Robinson had not told them about a phone he had in his pocket because he had still been half asleep.

He also hadn’t realised how detailed the restrictions were.

Robinson, now of Princess Royal Terrace, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO twice and the requirements of the register once. “Not only you, but everyone else on a SHPO needs to understand they (the orders) are to be obeyed. If they are not obeyed, you go to prison,” he told Robinson.

He jailed Robinson for six months.

Ms Clarke said Robinson handed over a Motorola phone when police asked him for any device on which he could access the internet. But he didn’t tell them about the Samsung phone in his pocket until they looked at his Google account and realised it was linked to it.

Robinson was also using a private browser called DuckDuckGo that hid his internet history, which Robinson was prohibited from hiding, and had set up a TikTok account under an alias which he had not told police about, though he had to tell them about every name he used online.

Mr Blount said Robinson had got the browser to stream television and hadn’t realised it was a private browser. He also hadn't realised that he had to tell police the names of any TikTok accounts that he held.

“He is now very clear of how seriously the courts take these matter and the need to make sure he is extremely diligent in the disclosures he makes to police," said Mr Blount.

Robinson had been struggling with his mental health earlier in the year but it was now improving. He had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, for which he was receiving medication, said the solicitor. He was also drinking “a reasonable amount of alcohol” on a daily basis.

Ms Clarke said police had found 41,000 images on Robinson’s internet devices and checked them all. None were illegal or indicated crimes other than those he had admitted.