A child rapist who spent a night camping in Trimley woods before being caught by police walking along the High Road has been jailed for a year.

After being recognised by an eagle-eyed police officer, Mark Stevenson, 42, appeared before magistrates in January. He admitted breaching a lifetime sex offender notification order requiring him to notify police of any change of circumstances.

He appeared at Ipswich Crown Court today via video link from Norwich prison, to be sentenced for the offence.

The court heard Stevenson was sent to a young offender institution for seven years at Sheffield Crown Court in March 1996, aged 16, for two counts of rape and one of child abduction.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how he had received a caution in 2010 and convictions in 2103 and 2018 for breaching the order.

Despite registering his address at a house of multiple occupancy in Hull last January, Stevenson was found to have left the property in May by a visiting public protection officer.

The court heard he had been working as a forklift driver until March, but quit his job and left, with no intention of returning, after a colleague found out about his past and he started receiving threats.

He stayed in a tent in various locations, including Trimley after making his way from Humberside towards the Port of Felixstowe looking for a job before he was stopped and questioned. (full story here...)

It was soon established he was wanted by Humberside Police for failing to keep to sex offender notification requirements since May 10 last year, by failing to notify authorities of a change of address or being of no fixed address.

Kelly Fernandez-Lee, mitigating, said Stevenson had been effectively ousted after his past came to light in Hull.

She said: "He doesn't seek to undermine the seriousness of the substantive offence."

Judge Emma Peters acknowledged the difficulty of having to adhere to lifetime notification requirements, but said the obligation was there for a reason and would never go away, adding: "If you offend again, it will only get more serious."