A 55-YEAR-OLD man who molested a girl as young as three and took indecent photographs of another girl as she undressed at an amusement park has escaped a prison sentence.

A judge at Maidstone Crown Court told John McCormick he had to consider the best way of protecting the public.

But Judge Anthony Balston added that McCormick, who has spent six months in custody on remand, would have no reason to complain if he had been sent back to prison.

Imposing a three-year community rehabilitation order the judge said: “There is no doubt that these offences, when taken together, pass the custody threshold and you couldn’t complain if I were to sentence you to a further term of imprisonment.

“But I also have to consider what is the best way of ensuring you don’t commit similar offences in the future.”

The court heard that the abuse came to light when the three-year-old girl told her mother.

McCormick, of Sheldwich Close, Ashford, was arrested and computer equipment and digital cameras found at his home were seized. Prosecutor Jonathan Higgs said that when the computer was examined, officers found a number of images of a sexual nature. The children in them were older girls, aged about eight.

McCormick, a shopfitter, was interviewed and made full admissions. He told police he had taken the older girl and a friend to Thorpe Park amusement park in Surrey.

“He said one of the rides involved them getting very wet,” explained Mr Higgs. “He took them to the back of his van so they could change their clothing. While doing this he took photos of them. He said he was overcome with a sexual urge on seeing the girl remove her underwear.”

It was then, the court heard, that he indecently touched her.

On another occasion he took a photograph of her with her trousers down before kissing her intimately.

“She seemed to be concerned by this, unsurprisingly,” said Mr Higgs, “and indicated that if he did it again she would tell her mum.”

However, that was a third time when McCormick put his hand down the front of the girl’s trousers and touched her under her clothing.

When questioned about the three-year-old McCormick said he was aroused when he saw her without her trousers and knickers, and kissed her.

“He said he hadn’t touched her with his fingers but added that he didn’t think the girl would tell lies,” said Mr Higgs.

The court heard that McCormick told police he had been having “urges of this sort” for 20 years but had not been able to “contain” them.

“He said specifically he found pre-pubescent girls’ genital areas sexually exciting,” added Mr Higgs. “He didn’t find young males sexually arousing. He said the pictures were nice and would masturbate while looking at them. He concluded that in his view he needed help but didn’t know where to go to.”

The court was told that once McCormick had taken the photographs he would download them onto his computer. Each time he looked at an image he would delete it, only to retrieve it from the computer’s recycle bin for another look at a later stage. None of the images were ever distributed.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the toddler’s mother said McCormick’s abuse had left her devastated. She said: “My life has completely changed. I am no longer able to trust men. I am forever watching my daughter and anyone near her…This event has changed our entire outlook on life and at the moment I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

In a similar statement, the mother of the eight-year-old girl said: “This has caused a great deal of anxiety. My awareness towards my daughter has heightened greatly as to where she is and who she is with…I have concerns about her unwillingness to talk about what happened to her.

"It has caused unimaginable distress. I cannot state just how much pain and misery this man's actions have caused."

McCormick admitted sexual activity with a child aged three, three offences of sexual assault on the eight-year-old and seven offences of taking indecent photographs between January and November last year

Three of the photographs were of a different girl, also aged eight, but a girl featured in another could not be identified. All the images were said to be level one in terms of seriousness, with level five being the highest.

Tony Badenoch, defending, said the offences were at the lower end of the scale and had an “opportunistic aspect” rather than ones involving grooming.

He said the most important mitigating factor was McCormick’s early guilty pleas, and argued that imposing a CRO was not a soft option.

“On the day he was interviewed by the police,” said Mr Badenoch, “the defendant felt something had happened that day which lifted a huge weight off his shoulders. He felt he had no one to turn to, no one to go to, and so spoke freely to the police. He wants to go forward from here with real assistance.”

The court heard that McCormick, who has a previous conviction for indecent exposure more than 20 years ago, also wanted to apologise for the “enormous trauma”.

As part of the CRO McCormick must participate with the Thames Valley Sex Offenders Group and live at a hostel.

A Sexual Offences Prevention Order was also made for 10 years. As part of this he is banned from working with children, owning, using or having access to computer equipment unless under constant supervision by the probation service, having no unsupervised access to a child under 18 and banned from possessing a camera.

McCormick, who has an eight-year-old son, must also sign on the sex offenders’ register.

Judge Balston, who said he was assisted by a long and detailed report from a well-respected psychiatrist, added on passing sentence: “It is perhaps worth saying I felt able to pass sentence on these terms because the degree of sexual abuse was not as great as one usually finds in such cases.”