Sex offender Raymond Barry Eades, 56, jailed indefinitely for breaching supervision order by allegedly trying to groom three boys

A SEX offender with a history of preying on young boys has been sent back to jail indefinitely after allegedly trying to groom three boys.

A SEX offender with a history of preying on young boys has been sent back to jail indefinitely after breaching a supervision order by allegedly trying to groom three boys.

Raymond Barry Eades, 56, was released on a Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offender) supervision order in November last year.

He was back before a Supreme Court after authorities breached him on several occasions and sought Eades to be sent back to jail indefinitely.

In a written judgment which became available today, Justice Debbie Mullins said Eades had a lengthy criminal history of both sexual offences and dishonesty offences dating back to 1973.

He had been jailed most recently on seven counts of indecent treatment of children under the age of 16 years and two counts in relation to a child under the age of 12 years.

At first he was given an indefinite sentence but in 2008 a 10 year sentence of imprisonment was imposed.

Justice Mullins said Eades has been classed as a nonexclusive homosexual paedophile which was of lifelong duration and which had involved a very large number of victims with multiple occasions of recidivism.

She said there had been very little time that Eades has spent outside prison since the age of 19 years.

"His sexual offending has typically involved his befriending the parent or parents or guardian of a child and then grooming both the parents and the child prior to the commission of the offence," she said.

Since the Eades release under the supervision order, he had been convicted of two breaches, with the first that he not knowingly associated or have contact with someone convicted of a sexual offence.

He also pleaded guilty to the second offence of not truthfully responding to inquiries made by a Corrective Services officer about his activities.

However, authorities moved to rescind his supervision order when it became clear he had on six occasions had contact with three boys aged five, eight and 13 who were the friends of a woman he knew.

Eades was in breach of his order even though he insisted the boys were always with a parent when he saw them.

Justice Mullins said his explanation that he did not understand the condition is inconsistent with his rationalisation that he was not in breach of it at the time that he was encountering the three boys.

"I find the contravention in associating with the family in that way brought him into contact with the three boys and was not accidental conduct. It had all the hallmarks of grooming behaviour," Justice Mullins said.

She noted even GPS monitoring was still largely retrospective and only identified where the offender had been and not the persons with whom the offender was associating.

Justice Mullins said several factors including Eades "lack of candour" in his dealings with the Corrective Services officers about his contact with the three boys, meant she was unpersuaded his high risk of re-offending could be adequately addressed by the existing supervision order.

She rescinded the supervision order and ordered Eades be detained in custody for an indefinite term for control care or treatment.