A paedophile who has already attended two sex offender treatment courses has been jailed after he was found with abuse images for the third time.

Lidio Morrineau was found with new material which he had downloaded from the internet and had a child sex doll at his home in Exmouth when it was raided by the police.

He has a long-standing obsession with underage girls which has persisted despite being completing treatment programmes in 2003 and 2013.

He started accessing abuse images again in 2016 and carried on doing so until police seized his computers in June 2018.

Morrineau, 61, of Withycombe Park Drive, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and was jailed for nine months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

An allegation of importing a child sex doll was not proceeded with.

The judge told him: “I cannot ignore your background or what else was found at your address and the way in which it interrelates to your long-standing interest in pre-pubescent girls.

“I understand that issues of alcohol and isolation are a problem for you, along with your entrenched sexual interest but it the responsibility of you and only you to resist your urges rather than acting on them and viewing this horrible material.

“Third time around, even with the mitigation I have heard, custody is inevitable. Two significant probation interventions have not had the desired effect.”

Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said police seized Morrineau’s laptop in June 2018 and found images at all three categories of seriousness, including A, which shows serious abuse of children by adults.

Mr Brendon Moorhouse, defending, said the course which Morrineau attended succeeded in changing his attitudes and that another would be the best way of protecting the public.

He said Morrineau has caring responsibilities for his elderly mother and is ashamed of his behaviour.

The Judge put Morrineau on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made a sexual harm prevention order which allows the police to monitor his online activity for the same time.

In the previous case in 2013, Morrineau was also found with a child-sized mannequin dressed as a little girl and a pair of pink girl’s knickers under his computer chair.