A founder of a Southend-based children's charity has been put behind bars for trying to snatch a young boy from a council estate.

As Paul Dean began a five-year jail sentence for attempted abduction, it emerged that he helped set up the Dream Team charity despite a criminal conviction for harassing two boys.

For more on this story, see the "Dream Team nightmare" stories in Newsround The Charity Commission has pledged to investigate the case of Dean, who with his wife and a friend established the charity to arrange dream holidays for sick, disabled and terminally-ill youngsters.

The Old Bailey heard on Friday how Dean, 30, of Woodgrange Drive, Southend, carefully planned to snatch the boy from an east London estate while his wife was away.

It was only thanks to the screams of the boy's mother that the child was not taken by Dean. He was arrested ten days later having been traced through his car registration.

Dean helped set up Dream Team ten years after being placed on probation for sending obscene letters and making obscene calls to two young boys.

He admitted around 70 such offences and the court heard the material he sent was of a "homosexual nature" and concerned what he would like to do to the boys.

Today, one of his former associates urged the Charity Commission to launch an inquiry into how Dean could have set up a children's charity given his past record.

The commission, in a statement, said it had set up a working party to look at ways of tightening its procedures and barring people with criminal convictions from charity involvement.

The Dream Team, based in Priory Works, Priory Place, Southend, has become one of the most successful and high-profile charities in the area since its inception in 1996.

In its first year it raised £250,000 and this year has a target of £1 million for the millennium, to send sick and disabled youngsters on dream trips and holidays.

The charity has distanced itself from Dean's involvement, saying he had not worked for it for between a year and 18 months, even though he was described in court as its general manager.

It is believed that Dean and his wife Maree have split up. She was not at the couple's home over the weekend, and has been unavailable for comment.

Essex Social Services director Mike Leadbetter today called for tighter controls governing charities in the light of Dean's involvement with Dream Team.

He said: "This was a tragic and, I am afraid, inevitable consequence of the current inadequate legislation. Adults who have significant unsupervised contact with children must be police checked."

Pervert: Paul Dean helped set up a children's charity despite a previous conviction for harassing young boys

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