A FORMER Dorchester man convicted of sex offences failed to tell a single mum he’d started a relationship with about his past, a court heard.

The young woman, who has a two-year-old child, was left “devastated” after learning Andrew Dolman, aged 34, and previously of Trinity Street, Dorchester, was a convicted sex offender who was using an alias.

She had no idea that Dolman – who was staying at her flat in Bournemouth for two nights a week – had indecently assaulted a young girl in Warwickshire in 2000.

Nor was she aware he’d also been convicted of having penetrative sex with a girl under the age of 16, and abducting the child – offences for which he was jailed for 40 months at Dorchester Crown Court in 2012.

Under sex offence legislation, Dolman is duty bound to inform police of any change of address, and is prohibited from residing in the same home as a child.

Dolman was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court to ten months in prison after pleading guilty to breaching a number of notification requirements of the sex offenders’ register.

The court heard Dolman had effectively “fallen off the radar” after being evicted from his address last December.

He also used two aliases without informing police, from which was prohibited under the terms of the sex offenders’ register.

He used the name Robin Twist on Facebook, and Andy Wood on the dating website Plenty of Fish.

When police finally caught up with Dolman in August, he was living at the flat at Bournemouth under the name Andy Wood.

Prosecuting, Robin Sellers said the woman he was living with “would never have entered into a relationship with the defendant had she known the true facts”.

Mitigating, Peter Asteris told the court Dolman had turned to drugs aged 12.

The defendant had experienced a “brutal” upbringing dominated by sexual and physical abuse, Mr Asteris told the court.

“When he met the young woman it was the first time in his life someone genuinely appeared to care for him,” the barrister said.

“Yes, he misled her, he hid the fact he was a sex offender.

“Five nights a week he’d live rough on the streets, pretending he’d got a night job. But he had a desperate desire to be normal.”

The court also heard Dolman has breached notification requirements of sexual offence orders on two past occasions.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge Haggan said: “The young woman was completely oblivious to your background. She had no idea you were a sex offender. When she discovered the truth she was devastated.”