Balloon fetish child sex offender back behind bars

Hunter was first convicted of taking indecent or pseudo photos in 1994

A notorious sex offender who was banned from possessing orange balloons is back behind bars after admitting breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

David Hunter, 74, of Kettlethorpe Road, Fenton, was arrested following an incident involving two girls on a bus between Lincoln and Boston last year.

He was jailed for three years and nine months for three charges at Lincoln Crown Court on Wednesday.

Hunter was first convicted of taking indecent images in 1994 and has been under a series of orders since 2001.

This was the 36th time Hunter had broken court orders imposed to restrict his activities.

He was previously jailed for three and a half years in December 2017 and prohibited from possessing orange balloons.

Hundreds of photos of girls either holding or blowing-up balloons were found at two properties linked to Hunter in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

Footage showing Hunter appearing to "simulate sex" with an orange balloon was also seized, the court heard.

Previously, in 2015, Hunter was jailed for three years and four months for filming a girl on a bus and contacting the same child after being released from prison.

He sent a Facebook request to the girl accompanied with a black and white photo of a school boy and references to balloon websites.

He also contacted her on Instagram with two messages that said "you're gorgeous" and "love you to bits."

In November 2014, he was given a three-year probation supervision order after admitting visiting Butlins Waterworld in Skegness.

There was evidence he had swam with a nine-year-old girl on the rapids under the false name of "David Harley".

Two months earlier a memory card containing over 1,200 photographs of children was found when police searched premises where Hunter was staying.

He was also jailed for 15 months in 2011 and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years after he broke a court order banning him from possessing balloons in public.

He was arrested after police searched his car and found an orange coloured heart-shaped balloon on the front passenger seat.

Officers also found photographs of young children holding balloons.