Peter Rowell sent back to prison after breaching sex offender order
Peter Rowell, 67, has been sent back to prison after admitting he failed to tell police he had been at an address where a child lived. The former and ITV presenter was sentenced at Newport Magistrates’ Court on 1 April after pleading guilty to two counts of failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements. The case adds another chapter to the long-running Peter Rowell story, more than a decade after his original convictions for indecent assault.
What happened at Newport Magistrates’ Court
Rowell was jailed for 24 weeks after admitting breaches linked to an address where a child resided for more than 12 hours. The court heard that he failed to notify Gwent Police within three days, as required. He had earlier been given a suspended sentence in June last year after admitting three similar counts of failing to notify police, plus a breach of a sexual harm prevention order involving unsupervised contact with a girl under 16.
Those latest breaches were said to have taken place between 1 November 2025 and 26 March this year. Rowell, formerly of the Abergavenny area in Wales, entered guilty pleas to the notification offences. Peter Rowell is now back in custody after the court imposed the new sentence.
The original sex offences
Rowell was jailed for six years in 2012 after admitting 12 indecent assaults involving five girls under the age of 16, along with charges of making and possessing indecent images. Police later found more than 400 indecent images of children on his computer after raiding his home before he failed to appear for work in March 2011.
He worked for ITV West before moving to present the afternoon show for Radio Bristol and Radio Somerset in 2010 and 2011. Earlier in his career, he worked as a DJ for GWR FM in the 1980s and 1990s, where police said some of his early contact with victims began after the girls showed interest in the station and in him.
Immediate reaction from police and the court record
At the time of the original case, Det Insp Jill Kells said Rowell used “very predatory and grooming behaviour” to groom the girls before offending against them. In sentencing him in 2012, Judge David Ticehurst said Rowell had hidden “a dark secret” behind a public image of success, and that the offending was not an isolated lapse but a series of offences against five separate girls over several years.
The record now shows Peter Rowell has returned to prison again for breaching the rules that apply to sex offenders living in the community. The latest sentence means his name is once more tied to a case that has moved from the original assaults to repeated failures to meet legal notification duties.
Quick context and what happens next
Sex offender notification requirements are designed to keep police informed about where a person is staying, especially when children are present. In Rowell’s case, the issue has now returned to court multiple times, with the latest ruling coming after earlier breaches were also admitted.
For now, Peter Rowell remains behind bars, and the next developments will depend on any further compliance issues or future court action connected to his notifications and order breaches.
