A CONVICTED paedophile entered into a relationship with a woman while concealing his offences and it progressed to him living at her house with her child.

It was said at Newport Crown Court that Steven Jones, of Newbridge Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood was trying to achieve a bit of “normality” in his life by entering into the relationship.

However, that normality had been destroyed by Jones, 35, when he was convicted of two counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child.

For those offences, Jones was given 12 months in prison and placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years at a sentencing hearing in May 2023.

Jones met the woman on a dating site in February and the relationship progressed to meeting up and him staying at the woman’s address in Aberbargoed for a number of weeks.

The defendant mentioned he had previous convictions for drug offences but didn’t say anything of his child sexual offences.

When the woman eventually found out about Jones’ sex offences she immediately asked him to leave her address where her 17-year-old child also lived.

As part of his sentence for the child offences, Jones was required to regularly update police on his whereabouts and notify them if he stays at an address where someone under 18 resides – something he failed to do.

In mitigation, the bricklayer and father of one’s actions were described as stupid and naive but he wanted to return to a “sense of normality”.

The paedophile has six previous convictions for 13 offences, most of them driving related.

Read more crime at the Argus: Tredegar man defied restraining order and tripped up ex

On sentencing, Judge Hywel James said the restrictions placed on Jones were there for a reason.

“The purpose is to protect the public, said Judge James, “(but) there was a disregard for those precautions.

Facing two charges of breaching requirements of a sexual harm prevention order in February and March, Jones was given a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

He was also made to do 80 hours unpaid work.