A PEEPING Tom who crept into a flat to watch a couple have sex has walked free from court.

Paul Spencely, 23, laughed as he pulled up a duvet to have a better view of the lovemaking.

But the married man, who admitted 15 sex and assault offences, escaped a three-year jail sentence because a judge felt he wouldn’t receive treatment for his sex problem.

Spencely, of Whitstable Road, Faversham, had preyed on unsuspecting victims in the Canterbury area during a year-long campaign of voyeurism and sex assault.

Tanya Robinson, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court how at 10pm on January 26 last year a couple were in bed at their home in St Peter’s Grove, Canterbury.

“They were having sexual intercourse under a duvet when they felt it being lifted up and the woman saw a male figure illuminated in the bedroom and she heard a laugh.”

Spencely then fled out of the flat as the frightened couple telephone the police, she added.

Ms Robinson said that three weeks earlier Spencely had struck at the same block of flats, only this time he had been disturbed by a neighbour.

In March, he was watching two women in Black Griffin Lane, Canterbury - this time after being caught masturbating outside a window.

He then burst in and attacked the terrified women, groping them before pretending to flee. Spencely tried to attack them a second time but one of the women had wedged shut the living room door, the court heard.

Ms Robinson added that Spencely’s behaviour during this period was “forceful and aggressive” - leaving both victims frightened to go out alone.

In June he was back in Black Griffin Lane, hanging from a window as another female victim used the bathroom. When she screamed, he ran away.

She said he also stalked two other girls groping them as he ran passed in St Peter’s Grove.

Spencely, who admitted four indecent assaults, two of voyeurism and asked for nine similar offences to be considered, was arrested after his DNA was found at two houses. He had previous convictions of sex offences.

Eleanor Laws, defending, said psychiatrists had examined Spencely and concluded that he could be treated for his problem. She said unless it was tackled, the offences could be repeated and increase in seriousness.

But Judge Timothy Nash said the defendant was unlikely to receive help in prison - and instead put him under a three year rehabilitation order on the condition he receive specialised help.

“Your behaviour was disgusting and the victims must have gone through a quite terrifying time.

The judge said he had considered what his daughter would have felt had she been one of Spencely’s victims and the answer was "quite terrified".

But the judge added that the public would be better protected if Spencely received treatment rather than serving a prison sentence.

Judge Nash said that even if he had passed a three-year jail sentence, the reality would be that he would serve just over a year.

“I ask myself if you would be given the help that you need in custody and I suspect strongly that you would get no help whatsoever.”

He also ordered him to be placed on the sex offender register for five years and made it an offence for Spencely to enter a dwelling without prior authority for an indefinite period.