A "dangerous" paedophile went "off grid" in North Yorkshire, a court heard.

For nearly a year police officers didn’t know where Samuel Clark, 38, lived and when they did find out, they discovered he had a 170-page “paedophile manual”, said Kelly Clarke, prosecuting.

He also had more than 35,000 indecent videos and photos of children on his internet devices.

Neal Kutte for Clark said: “He is absolutely adamant this would never have escalated to contact offending (sexually abusing children).”

But Judge Simon Hickey disagreed.

“I take the view you do have a clear sexual interest in children,” he told Clark. “You are undoubtedly, in my judgement, dangerous.”

The paedophile manual contained advice to people like Clark on how to groom children and sexually exploit them.

“You could well go

See Full Page