A CONVICTED rapist who exposed himself to a woman walking her dog has been spared jail.

Andrew Thwaites faced another jail sentence after his release from a seven-year term imposed in 2001. But a judge said he needed help and imposed a maximum supervision order with a sex offender’s treatment programme.

Thwaites was 17 when he was locked up for the rape of a disabled woman in her home on Teesside.

Thwaites, now 24, was put on the sex offenders’ register for life, but went on to expose himself to the 44-year-old last summer.

The woman was walking ahead of her dog on a cycle path in Hallgarth, Middlesbrough, when Thwaites strode past.

He appeared to smile at her before going into some bushes, prosecutor Jacqueline Edwards told Teesside Crown Court.

The woman slowed down to wait for her pet, when Thwaites jumped out with his jeans and pants around his ankles Miss Edwards said: “She was in shock and ran in the opposite direction.

He was jumping up and down, naked from the bottom half.

“The woman ran 100 yards and met another man and he rang the police.”

Peter Wishlade, mitigating, said that Thwaites’ girlfriend was in court and she had written a letter to the judge on his behalf.

Judge George Moorhouse told Thwaites that he was bound by sentencing guidelines. But he said: “It seems to me that you are desperate yourself for help.”

Thwaites, of Chadburn Green, Saltersgill, Middlesbrough, was given a three-year community order with supervision and the treatment programme after he pleaded guilty to the exposure offence.