A former BBC presenter previously jailed for sexual offences against children has been returned to prison after breaching strict monitoring conditions. Peter Rowell, 67, of Wickwar in South Gloucestershire, was sentenced to a further 29 weeks for failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements.
Rowell, who once hosted BBC Radio Bristol's Afternoon Show, admitted two breaches of the order. The court heard he travelled 30 miles to Pontypridd in South Wales and stayed for more than 12 hours at a property with a child under 18 without informing police. He also failed to notify police of an address where he had stayed for seven days or longer between November last year and March.
In 2012, Rowell was sentenced to six years after admitting 12 counts of indecent assault on girls under 16 and possessing more than 400 indecent images of children. The offences took place between 1989 and the early 1990s. He also worked as a news reader for ITV West and as a DJ for commercial radio station GWR.
Sentencing Rowell in 2012, Judge David Ticehurst said: 'You had a life and lifestyle that would have been the envy of many... Behind that public image, you were a man that hid a dark secret.' The judge added that Rowell used his celebrity status to attract young girls and sexually abuse them.
