A sex offender from Bexley tried to film a woman using the toilet just weeks after he was released from prison, a court has heard. 

James Bainbridge, 28, has previously been jailed for attempting to meet a teenage girl for sex, sexually assault a child under the age of 13 and possessing indecent images of children. 

In January this year he was released from prison on licence having served a three year sentence. 

But within weeks Bainbridge was arrested again when a woman spotted a phone in a bathroom. 

Judge Jonathan Mann KC said: “You placed your phone in the bathroom and took a photo of her.” 

Police attended but the woman decided not to make a complaint against Bainbridge. 

However, police looked through his phone and found four indecent images of children. 

The phone had not been registered with police, making it a breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). 

On Friday (March 15) he appeared at Woolwich Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of breaching his SHPO. 

The court heard that Bainbridge was first in court in 2016, when he was given a suspended sentence for the sexual assault of a child. 

On that occasion he was given a suspended sentence. 

Then in 2021 he was given a community order for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. 

Most recently, in January 2022, he was given a three year prison sentence for breaching a sexual harm prevention order, one count of distributing an indecent image of a child and one count of making an indecent image of a child. 

As a result of his previous offending, Judge Mann concluded: “The only possible sentence is an immediate custodial sentence, there’s no hesitation in mind.” 

Bainbridge, appearing in court by videolink from HMP Thameside, shook his head as Judge Mann sentenced his to one and a half years in prison. 

Judge Man said: “He’s shaking his head. He’s very lucky he’s not been charged with voyeurism. He would have got another year on top of that if he had.”