March 2014 Convicted paedophile took pupils on Black Country canal boat rides A sex offender banned from contact with young people was allowed to take schoolchildren on trips in the Black Country. Edward ‘Eddy’ Hunt worked as a volunteer with the Dudley Canal Trust for three years before police discovered what was happening, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told. The 68-year-old had twice been jailed for offences with children and been cautioned for possession of child porn, it was disclosed. But the Trust admitted taking him on without checking if he had a criminal past, revealed Mr Geoffrey Dann, prosecuting. Part of the role of unmarried Hunt involved taking groups of schoolchildren on canal boat rides, the court heard. Mr Dann revealed: “He was not left alone with the children who had a teacher with them but that action was a breach of the Sex Offender Prevention Order he was subject to.” He was locked up for nine months in 1994 ‘ for an offence involving children’ and received another 15 months behind bars in 1999 for a further offence ‘involving the Child Abduction Act,’ it was said. Hunt has since been cautioned for possession of an indecent image of a child, the court heard. He was arrested in September last year after the Sex Offender Manager, who had recently taken over the case, learned Hunt was having contact with children while working as a volunteer with the Trust, explained Mr Dann. Mr David Bratt, defending, said: “He had not kept this secret. The previous offender manager had been advised where he was working and could have checked what that position entailed. The school trips all had responsible teachers with them.” Hunt, from Mickley Avenue, Park Village, admitted breaking the terms of the Sex Offender Prevention Order and was given a three-year community order. Judge John Warner told him: “You could be jailed for up to10 years but I draw back from sending you away. “This is not to be merciful to you but I regard it as the best way of achieving protection for the public by ensuring you are under the supervision of probation officers for sufficient time to complete the sex offender management programme.” But he warned Hunt, who was also given a 24-week night time electronically monitored home curfew: “If you break the rules again you will come back in front of me and you will go to prison for quite a long time. You had better watch how you behave.”