A convicted paedophile with a long history of reoffending has been remanded in custody following arrest for an incident with a female child.

Robert John Liddle of Moorlough Road, Lisnaskea is charged with breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) on 12 May by speaking with a female child aged under 10 which he was prohibited from doing.

A detective constable aware of the facts of the case told Strabane Magistrates Court the charge could be connected.

She explained on 18 June police received a report of an incident last month when the child was permitted to go into a shop unaccompanied, while her father waited in his car outside.

An independent witness observed Liddle talking to the child and on knowing both, left the shop and informed her father.

Both men re-entered and noted Liddle in conversation with the girl after which her father took her away.

Following consideration they alerted police and the child disclosed Liddle had told her to walk in front of him and commented on her hair.

He was arrested and after caution replied, “I was talking to the girl. I know her father.”

During interview he accepted being in the shop and speaking to the child but insisted her father was present throughout.

He claimed the witness “would like to have him shot” but could not put that into any context.

The court heard Liddle has been managed by Public Protection Arrangements NI since 2005 although his sexual offending goes back to 1983.

Objecting to bail the detective pointed to a risk of reoffending and set out Liddle’s extensive previous record.

The most recent SOPO was imposed in 2019 but prior to that Liddle had multiple sexual convictions.

There was an indecent assault on a 9-year-old female child in 1983, and two 12-year-old girls were similarly targeted in 1990.

An 11-year-old female child was indecently assaulted in 1999 while Liddle was working as a gardener which afforded him access to children “which he exploited to satisfy his own sexual needs.”

In 2014 Liddle committed an act of public indecency by positioning himself to look up schoolgirls’ skirts in a supermarket, which occurred while he was on his way to a meeting with Probation Services sex-offender group work programme in Belfast.

There are also nine previous SOPO breaches between 2020 and 2021, the nature of which include travelling outside Northern Ireland to without informing his Designated Risk Manager, and attending an event in which permission was granted but going a day earlier and using a swimming pool while children were present.

Liddle was also found in shopping centre within restricted times in 2027 and in the proximity of a children’s play park in 2018.

He watched a school choir performing in a supermarket and engaged in conversations with a teenager in 2019 and the same year approached 10-year-old child, also in a supermarket.

In 2020 Liddle went to a jetty and watched teenagers in swimwear playing in the water and the following year travelled to Donegal and stayed overnight without approval The detective said, “Police wholly believe that this long record of offending demonstrates the defendant’s complete disregard for any sanctions the court places on him. He continues to seek out opportunities to engage with children. He displays a lack of self-control, poor decision making and impulsive behaviour. Despite years of intervention, he has shown no willingness to change. He has been advised about his conduct many times and hasn’t heeded.”

A defence barrister suggested bail could be granted with strict conditions however District Judge Alana McSorley refused stating, “There are multiple SOPO on record despite requirements being spelled out on numerous occasions.”

Liddle will appear again by video-link at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on 18 July.