A FORMER teacher who was jailed for "bullying and manipulating" children into sending him indecent images of themselves breached a sexual harm prevention order following his release from prison, a court has heard.

Nicholas Taylor, from Stanway, was jailed for six years in 2017 after he admitted distributing indecent photographs of children, inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and making indecent images of children.

The offences, which were committed between October 2014 and October 2015 while Taylor, 33, was working at a primary school in Hertfordshire, involved him making contact with a number of children through a chat group on Instagram.

Using an alias, he had befriended them before bullying and manipulating them into sending him indecent images of themselves.

The children were aged between ten and 15 at the time of the offences.

On Thursday, Taylor, of Rhino Drive, Stanway, appeared for sentence at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting three offences of breaching the terms of a sexual harm prevention order made in 2017 in relation to his use of electronic devices and one offence of failing to notify police of an alias he used.

He was given a three-year community order, a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and to attend a Horizon sex offenders’ programme.

The court heard in February this year police officers who made an unannounced visit to his home found an iPad and a Kindle which he hadn’t informed them about under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order made at his sentencing hearing in 2017.

When the iPad was examined, it was found to contain one indecent image of a child in the most serious level A category and five in the lowest level C category.

Steven Dyble, for Taylor, said he had been recalled to prison after his arrest and had then remained in custody for a further six months, which was the equivalent of a 12-month sentence.