A convicted child rapist has been jailed after he broke an order to stay away from children by living with two unsuspecting families.

Jason Stacey did not tell the parents about his past when he spent six months sofa-surfing at their homes in Teignmouth while working at a chip shop in the seaside town.

He used the false name of Jay Stacey-Harding after becoming homeless when a relationship with a woman in Plymouth broke down in 2017.

He has convictions dating from 2005 in Sussex for three rapes and nine cases of gross indecency against underaged girls.

Stacey was subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) which forbade contact with children and required him to tell the police where he was living.

He went off the police’s radar in April 2017 and he was not traced for a year, by which time he was living in his own accommodation in Barn Park Road, Teignmouth.

Stacey, aged 47, who is now homeless and living in a tent in Torbay, admitted three breaches of a SOPO and one of failing to comply with the sex offenders register.

He was jailed for six months and three weeks by Recorder Mr Jeremy Wright at Exeter Crown Court, who extended the SOPO for 10 years.

He told him: ‘You knew the purpose of the order very well. Over a period of a year you were in clear breach, firstly by living under the same roof as two children for four-and-a-half months.

‘If that were all, it might be possible to suspend this sentence, but for two months you went on to live with a family with three children under 16.

‘During all that time, you failed to register your change of address. Although there may have been an excuse for a short time, that ceased to be the case in a very short time.’

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said Stacey was on the register and subject to the SOPO because he was convicted of rapes and sexual assaults at Lewes Crown Court in 2005.

He left his registered address in Plymouth in early 2017 and moved to Teignmouth, where he spent six-and-a-half months living with two families, one with two children under 16 and one with three.

He did not tell the parents about his past, as he was required to be the SOPO, and he took some of the children on outings in which he was left alone with them for half an hour or so.

Mr Geoff Parlby, defending, said Stacey had stayed out of trouble for three years after his release in 2014 and these offences arose from a crisis in his personal life which led him to lost his home in Plymouth, his relationship, and his former job as a van driver.

He said Stacey had not tried to groom or take advantage of the children at the two houses in any way.