Former Kingston Council leader Derek Osbourne has been re-arrested for allegedly breaching his sexual offences order.

The ex-Liberal Democrat leader was released from prison in October 2014 having served half of a two year sentence for making and distributing indecent images of children.

October 2013: Jailed paedophile and former Kingston Council leader Derek Osbourne apologises to people of Kingston for 'letting them down'

October 2013: Former Kingston Council leader Derek Osbourne jailed for two years for possessing indecent images of children

The 61-year-old was rearrested yesterday.

Osbourne had been the leader of the council for more than a decade and served the borough as a Beverley ward councillor for 27 years before he was arrested in June 2013.

He pleaded guilty to 17 counts of making and distributing indecent images and is believed to have spent time in both Wandsworth and Brixton prisons.

A spokesman for Kingston Council said: "The council has been made aware that Mr Osbourne has been arrested for breach of his licence conditions.

"The council has no other information. This is a police matter."

Posting under the online pseudonym of Dave Strider, Osbourne posted images including extreme images of children, animals and violence against women.

Donald Findlater is director of research and development at Surrey-based child protection charity Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which works with sex offenders to help them manage their thoughts and behaviour.

He said: "People should be in no doubt whatsoever that viewing or sharing sexual images of anyone under 18 is a serious crime. It’s a crime precisely because the children that appear in these images are real children.

"While we don’t know how the sex offender order was breached in this particular case, it is important to note that it is rare for such breaches to occur -  fewer than 5 per cent of arrested and convicted internet sex offenders go on to breach their order."

Osbourne was bailed until May.