A FORMER milkman who has twice been jailed for child abuse is back behind bars for breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

Trevor Buchan, who has changed his name to Paul Thomas, was banned from having contact with children for longer than three minutes.

But the 58-year-old was repeatedly babysitting a three-year-old girl at his flat in Trowbridge, Swindon Crown Court was told.

And while he was with the youngster outside the flats he accepted he had 'inappropriate thoughts'.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, said neighbours alerted police to what they thought was going on in November last year.

She said it was claimed that the little girl's mum was struggling to look after her daughter and the defendant was helping her out.

Officers spoke to him and he initially denied he had any contact with the child apart from passing as a neighbour.

And the girl's mum also said he had not been looking after her but when she realised his past she accepted that he had repeatedly helped her out.

She said he had been looking after the girl during the day because she had been hung over and was also with her in the communal gardens to the flats.

When he was arrested the defendant said that he had not breached the order, saying he had never been with the child alone.

He suggested that the order banned him from having unsupervised contact, but he later admitted what he had done.

Thomas, of Century Court, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

He was jailed for five years at Bristol Crown Court in 2011 after admitting molesting a young girl and breaching the order.

In 2009 he was put on a community order, with the sexual offences prevention order, for possessing indecent images of children.

And he also received a 27-month jail term in 1999 for sexually abusing another child between 1985 and 1992.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client accepted he was facing jail for what he had done adding that he still had 'sexual thoughts about children' in the back of his mind.

Jailing him for 32 months Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "The wording of that order was crystal clear.

"I don't accept for a minute that it didn't exclude you from unsupervised contact with children.

"It seems you spent three to four hours in contact with that little girl during which you took her to a communal garden.

"But you accept that when you were with that girl you had inappropriate thoughts. You attempt to explain that by saying that is why you went to the communal garden as it is where you knew other people would be. I am sceptical about that having read about you."

An NSPCC spokesman for South West England said: “Due to his previous serious convictions relating to child abuse offences, Thomas was a registered sex offender subject to a sexual offenders' prevention order.

“This restricted his contact with children, among other conditions, and his actions in Trowbridge represented a deliberate and significant breach of that order.

"It is right that Thomas was brought to justice and now faces the consequences of his actions.”

Any adult concerned about a child’s welfare can call the NSPCC’s helpline for free, 24-hours-a-day, on 0808 800 5000.