A SEXUAL predator is behind bars today after breeching an order imposed to protect the public from him.Convicted rapist Victor Picort, 41, was given a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) in 2005 because of fears he may commit another offence.

A SEXUAL predator is behind bars today after breeching an order imposed to protect the public from him.

Convicted rapist Victor Picort, 41, was given a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) in 2005 because of fears he may commit another offence.

The SOPO banned him from entering residential land wearing camouflage clothing or being under the influence of alcohol.

But on September 29 he was caught by a police officer in a residential alleyway in Ipswich, a breech of the SOPO.

Gareth Davies, prosecuting, told South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court that Picort, of Peterhouse Close, Ipswich, had previously been convicted of rape in 1992 and had served a six-year prison sentence.

Then in 2000 he was sentenced to five years in jail for indecently assaulting an 82-year-old woman in her own home.

Mr Davies said: “The police received a series of complaints of a person being in the area (of Balmoral Close, off Belstead Road) in a residential garden on September 16, 17 and 19.

“They were unsuccessful in finding him until they received a complaint from an elderly lady on the evening of September 19.

“A police officer went to investigate but there was no one in the area of the complaint.

“But when he moved into Holyrood Close the officer found the defendant up an alleyway in the gap between two bungalows.

“When he was challenged about this he told the officer he had been up the alleyway in order to have a wee.

“That is an explanation that features each time he has been detained in private residential properties.”

After pleading guilty to a breech of the SOPO magistrates sentenced Picort to 20 weeks in prison, including the 35 days he had spent on remand for the offence, and warned him that another breech would be considered an extremely serious crime.