A JAILED paedophile who lost his job at Didcot power station has won a redundancy settlement of more than £30,000 after suing his former bosses.

Robert Wills, of The Croft, Didcot, was due to be made redundant by RWE npower in the run-up to the closure of the plant in March this year.

In the same month, he was jailed for two years after admitting 10 charges, including making and distributing indecent images of children.

When his employer read about the case in the Oxford Mail it suspended his holiday pay and cancelled a £30,800 redundancy package, arguing he had ‘frustrated’ his contract.

They said that by being in jail, he was unable to fulfil the terms of his contract.

But yesterday, Ian Van Maanen, from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, successfully argued that because he had agreed with his employer that he would not go back to work – as a result of overtime accrued – he was not in breach of his contract.

He also told a judge at Reading Tribunal Centre that Wills had no moral or legal duty to tell his employers of the criminal case.

Oxford Crown Court was told on March 11 this year that Wills had a stash of 758 obscene pictures on his computers.

Employment Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto said: “In this case it is said on the behalf of the claimant that the contract is not frustrated by his imprisonment because there was no requirement for the claimant to be at work.

“He was on leave. Whether the claimant was in Bullingdon [Prison] or in Benidorm, it made no difference to the contract of employment.”