Paedophile Wakefield councillor Alex Kear finally disqualified from public office after six year jail term

Kear, 50, was jailed for six years at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, triggering an automatic process which disqualifies him from being a councillor.

The court heard he sent explicit photographs and depraved text messages to an undercover officer posing as the mother of a three-year-old girl.

Kear, who was elected as an independent for the district's Airedale and Ferry Fryston ward last year, shamelessly failed to resign after he admitted to two serious sex offences at court in July.

The case drew national headlines as it emerged he could continue picking up his taxpayer-funded allowance for another month.

Under the law, councils are unable to sack elected members unless they're jailed for three months or more.

Speaking after Kear was sentenced on Friday afternoon, the council's chief legal officer, Gillian Marshall said: "Following his conviction, Alex Kear has been automatically disqualified from his post as a councillor.

"This post is now vacant and there will be a by-election at some point in the future.”

Yvette Cooper is among those to have called for a change in the law to allow local authorities to dump councillors who admit, or are convicted, of serious offences before sentencing.

During a 2017 government consultation it was suggested that those on the sex offenders' register may be banned from becoming councillors, but that did not come to fruition.

Local Democracy Reporting Service