Missing person hunt police found girl and boy asleep in convicted paedophile's flat in Leeds

Jeffrey Senior
Jeffrey Senior
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A sex offender who flouted court orders by allowing two schoolchildren to sleep in his home has been sent back to prison.

West Yorkshire Police launched a missing person investigation after a 14-year-old girl was reported missing by her parents.

The youngster was eventually found in the early hours of the morning asleep on the sofa with her boyfriend, also aged 14, at Jeffrey Senior's flat in Lawnswood, Leeds.

A court heard the boy had also been smoking cannabis at the property.

Senior was the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) at the time of the incident, on March 22 this year

The 53-year-old was jailed for three years in 2013 after being convicted of false imprisonment, two offences of sexual activity with a child and three of sexual assault.

The conditions of his SOPO include him having no unsupervised contact with a child under 16.

He is also prevented from allowing or inviting a child into his home.

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Phillip Adams, prosecuting, said police were led to Senior's flat after the schoolgirl's parents reported her missing.

Officers went to the girl's teenage boyfriend's home but were then directed to Senior's flat.

A woman answered the door to the property and allowed the officers inside.

They found the teenagers asleep under a duvet on the sofa.

Senior was in bed at the time of the incident.

When he awoke he admitted to the officers that he was the subject of a SOPO.

During interview Senior admitted that the boy had been allowed to his flat on around 20 previous occasion and would smoke cigarettes there.

He said the boy had turned up at his flat with the girl after she had fallen out with her mum.

Senior said he had left them in the living before going to bed.

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He admitted he had seen the boy pick up a cannabis joint from an ashtray and smoke it.

Senior of Iveson Drive, Lawnswood, pleaded guilty to breach of a sexual offences prevention order.

Satpal Roth, mitigating, said it was the first time Senior had breached the offence in five-and-a-half years.

She added that the offence was not sexually motivated.

Ms Roth said Senior's home had been burgled and people had attacked his property since the incident after it had become common knowledge that he was subject to the order.

Senior was jailed for 18 months.

Recorder Gavin Doig said: "One can only imagine the anguish of their parents not knowing where they were at that time of night.

He added: "I have concluded that there was no sexual motive in your mind or the sentence would have been longer."