COURTLAND—A Norfolk man was sentenced to one year in jail for failing to register with the state’s sex offender registry in Southampton County Circuit Court Tuesday.

Blanton V. Purvy, 42, was convicted of three counts of failing to register in September. The charges, he said, stemmed from a misunderstanding. Purvy had been evicted from his Newsoms home and was homeless, but continued to list the address with the registry for several months.

Purvy, who is on the sex offender registry because of an attempted rape conviction in Chesapeake, said he was told to update his listing when he had a permanent home and denied trying to dodge the registry.

“Why would I not register?” he asked. “It’s in my best interest to register.”

Despite characterizing it as a “mild case” of failing to register, Circuit Court Judge Westbrook Parker said he didn’t believe all of Purvy’s testimony.

“The problem I’ve got with Mr. Purvy is the truth,” Parker said. “You’re not telling the whole truth.”