A FORMER Poole teacher who was jailed for downloading hundreds of indecent images of children has been living abroad in Montenegro and Cyprus since getting out of prison.

Dad-of-two Brian Saunders, 52, was working at Buckholme Towers School, Ashley Cross, until his wife uncovered 221 indecent photos on his laptop in 2012.

Saunders, who at the time admitted it was a habit he had been indulging in for 10 years, spent 20 weeks in jail for the crime and was disqualified from working with children for life as well as being made to go on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

On Monday, Saunders, who now resides in Cyprus, was back before the judge for breaching his sexual offences prevention order on nine occasions between 2013 and 2014.

He had previously pleaded guilty to the breaches which included three counts of failing to register foreign travel, three of residing or staying for at least 12 hours at any household or private place where anyone under the age of 18 resides, and three of staying in the same household as any young person under the age of 16 without express approval from the social services in that area.

Bournemouth Magistrates' Court heard how upon leaving prison Saunders had initially tried to go back and live in the family home in Bournemouth with his wife and children but soon realised that was not going to work out.

In early 2013 he retrained as a teacher and moved to Turkey to work in a school teaching English as a foreign language.

Since then he has also lived in his private home in Montenegro and now lives in Cyprus. He only visits the UK a couple of times a year to visit his family.

Saunders explained to the court that because he was technically an ex-patriot whose permanent address was abroad he was unaware of the fact that he had to register at a police station every time he entered the country - even if it was just for a few days.

The other breach relating to staying with anyone under the age of 18 related to staying with family members who have young children while he was visiting the UK.

He explained that when leaving prison he was granted permission by Dorset Social Services to return to his family home living with his son who was, at the time, under the age of 18.

"I thought that because my family members were aware of my convictions and were happy for me to stay with them that I was not breaking any laws," he said.

"As i say I regret my actions now but it wasn't done with any malice. Inadvertently I broke the law without even realising it."

District Judge Stephen Nicholls accepted the defences plea that Saunders unintentionally broke the law and fined him £1,200.