A convicted sex offender who flouted a court order by using the internet to access Facebook at Carlisle library has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Farmer Ian Gabbert, 24, was jailed for 22 months in 2014 for both sexually assaulting and grooming a 14-year-old girl.

He was released on licence last September, when he moved into a Carlisle city centre hostel.

The city’s crown court heard that the defendant repeatedly flouted a Sexual Harm Prevention Order designed to prevent him from using the internet to groom children.

When a police officer visited him at the hostel, he found Gabbert had an internet enabled phone and there was evidence he had used it to access Facebook.

The officer gave him a formal warning.

In another visit, on October 10, the police officer found the defendant had a basic mobile phone which he had used to send text messages to women.

Further investigation revealed Gabbert had used internet-enabled computers in Carlisle Library in the Lanes on nine occasions on dates in early October. Most of his computer searches on those computers related to Facebook.

When challenged, the defendant said: “It’s like a drug to me, Facebook. I can’t take myself off it.”

The court heard that the defendant’s criminal history included a sexual assault on a girl aged under 13 and taking a child without lawful authority. In December 2014, the court made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order following a conviction for meeting a girl aged under 16 following sexual grooming.

He was jailed for 22 months.

Defence barrister Neil Ronan said there was nothing untoward in Gabbert’s use of the mobile phones or Facebook.

Diagnosed with learning difficulties, the defendant was now working with the Probation Service to address his problems.

He lives and works on his parents’ farm in Ulpha, south Cumbria, and was no longer idle as he was at the hostel.

Passing sentence, Judge Tony Lancaster said background reports showed Gabbert was lonely and seeking a relationship with a woman, and not with a child.

“The case is a troubling one because of your history,” said the judge. The defendant was now regularly attending a course to address his problems but background reports had persuaded him to take an exceptional course.

The judge imposed 18 months’ jail, suspending the sentence for two years.

Gabbert will only be allowed access to the internet if the device’s history is retained and displayed and made available to police on request. Nor will the defendant be allowed unsupervised access to any child.