AN ENTRENCHED and predatory paedophile driven in life by an incurable urge to sexually abuse little girls is behind bars serving his fourth lengthy jail sentence.

Dennis Lane, 73, showed no sign of slowing down in his determination to groom and molest children, the judge sentencing him to four years imprisonment at Bradford Crown Court said.

Lane, who has previously served prison sentences of ten years and four years for child sexual offences and breaches of court orders, targeted young girls while he was living at sheltered housing for the elderly in Bradford. He befriended their grandparents and they sent him an album of photographs of the youngsters as a thank you for Christmas presents.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood said Lane was subject to a life-long Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) that included possession of any collection of pictures of young people under 18.

He would cut out pictures of children from papers and magazines and masterbate while looking at them and fantasise about grooming and abusing them.

The order also barred him from having any unsupervised contact with children and going to parks, playgrounds and fairs where he might meet them.

Although Lane handed back the photo album, saying he was not allowed to have it, he pleaded guilty to breaching the SOPO while he was in possession of it.

Lane, who had since moved to an address in Manchester Road, Bradford, told the police “there was a 90 per cent chance” that he would have abused the little girls if he had been left alone with them. He confessed to grooming the children’s grandparents to get access to the children. Mr Wood told the court: “The defendant is an entrenched paedophile and his history has demonstrated that he is utterly unwilling to curb his predatory urges.”

Lane was imprisoned for ten years in 1996 for indecently assaulting a girl under 14 and having sex with a girl under 13, now charged as rape. He was released in 2002 but recalled after a month for possession of pictures of children. In 2003, searches of his cell uncovered further similar images. Lane first breached the 2004 SOPO two years later and was sentenced to a three-year community order. He was jailed for two years for his second breach. A further breach in 2010 led to four-year jail sentence. Lane urged the sentencing judge on that occasion to lock him up indefinitely because he “could not control the demons” that attracted him to young girls.

Yesterday, Judge Jonathan Rose told Lane: “You may be 73 years of age but you show no sign or intention to slow down in your determined effort to commit offences against children.You can’t stop yourself because that is what drives you. The likelihood is that we will see you again but the maximum sentence is five years so I can’t send you to prison for longer than that.”

Lane was given credit for his guilty plea at the first opportunity.