A PAEDOPHILE hunter who helped snare a Barrow man said a short-term jail sentence is ‘not justice’ and will only encourage repeat offending.

Mike, a paedophile hunter who caught convicted Ian Strickland, 44, last year after posing as a 12-year-old girl, said his 17-month prison sentence is ‘sickening’.

Mike, who got involved in stinging sex offenders because of his own firsthand experience of child sex abuse, said Strickland was ‘clearly a prolific paedophile’ who ‘belongs behind bars’.

He said: “This is a prime example of how the justice system is failing us.

“A shorter sentence is giving absolutely no deterrent to other sex offenders and putting our children at risk.

“It goes to show these sentence guidelines do not protect real children who are being abused.”

Strickland had a secret mobile phone and laptop and has been sent back to prison because he did not tell the police about them.

Strickland was jailed in July 2018 after being caught out in an online sting by paedophile hunters Dark Light.

He was released in February with strict conditions he must inform police of any device capable of accessing the internet and make it available for on-the-spot checks.

On Friday September 6, officers visited Strickland’s home in Barrow unannounced and asked if he had any devices.

He showed them a router in the living room which was connected to a smart TV.

But when one of the officers connected his own laptop to the router he could see there were two other devices Strickland had not admitted to.

When challenged, Strickland produced a mobile phone from down the side of an armchair and led the officers to his bedroom, where he produced a laptop from under the bed.

He claimed to have misunderstood the terms of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and said he panicked, as he thought he was not allowed to have the items at all.

The court heard there was no evidence he had used the devices to commit any offences but simply having them and not declaring them put him in breach of his SHPO.

Strickland, of Tay Court, admitted two counts of breaching his SHPO and appeared at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

Judge Graham Knowles said: “I told you when I made the SHPO that if you breach it you can expect prison for up to five years.

“Your personal difficulties and learning difficulties are no mitigation for this breach.

“The fact you thought you were not allowed to have these items at all, whereas you were allowed to have them if you told the police and enabled them to see them, does not help you at all.”

Stickland was also subject to a suspended sentence imposed after he breached his SHPO within days from his release by being in contact with a child.

Judge Knowles said: “I also told you when I made the suspended sentence that it was up to you whether you went to prison or not.

“If you breach it, you would be going to prison - and you breached it.”

He activated 11 months of the suspended sentence and added six months consecutive for the new breach.