A convicted paedophile who was exposed after his girlfriend suspected he was two-timing her has admitted having unsupervised contact with children.

John Penfold, of Fore Street, Ipswich, admitted breaching the sex offenders’ prevention order he was given in 2009 when he appeared before Ipswich magistrates.

The 41-year-old also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Register.

All the offences took place in the Suffolk Coastal area.

Penfold’s case was committed to Ipswich Crown Court where he will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.

He was released on conditional bail until then.

Penfold was given a three-year community supervision order and placed on the sex offenders register in March 2009 at his crown court sentencing. He was also ordered to attend a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

Penfold had previously admitted 16 counts of making indecent images of children. He had also pleaded guilty to possession of indecent photos of a child.

Penfold, then of Stoke Park Drive, Ipswich, had 26 images of children on his mobile phone including two hardcore photos of young girls in a form of bondage.

He was caught out when his then-fiancee suspected he was seeing someone else and checked his mobile phone for other women’s numbers.

It was said during the court case that Penfold had always been very sensitive about his mobile phone and never left it behind when he went out.

However, his secret was discovered when he went to see someone but forgot to take his mobile, which he had been re-charging.

Twenty-four of the images found were Level One, the lowest level assigned to child pornography at the time. Two of the images were Level Five, the most graphic level of child pornography.

He was subsequently arrested by police, who checked his computer and DVDs, but no further sexual images involving children were found.