A PENSIONER arrested for child sex offences dating back 23 years after one of his victims spotted him at a funeral was spared jail yesterday.

Donald Ward, 67, admitted indecent assaults on two schoolgirls in Tow Law, County Durham, between 1986 and 1997.

One victim, now married, told police that she was receiving counselling for what he did to her, said prosecutor Paul Newcombe.

He told Teesside Crown Court: “She described him as creepy and she said that he made her feel uncomfortable.

“She said ‘I’m going to see a counsellor because I want to get over what Don did to me when I was a child’.”

Mr Newcombe said Ward pleaded guilty on the basis that all the offences happened outside the girls’ clothing when they were aged nine and 11.

He said: “The first victim told nobody, but all those years later she saw him at a funeral and she made allegations there which led to his arrest.”

Ward admitted to police that he appeared in magistrates’ court in 1980 and had spent 28 days in prison for an indecent assault.

Kate Dodds, in mitigation, said Ward, who walks with a stick after breaking his back in 2002, appeared to be a man who could be suitably managed in the community, instead of an immediate prison sentence.

She said: “He would offer whatever apologies he can. He is registered disabled and he has significant health problems.”

Ward, formerly of Tow Law but now living in The Links Caravan Park, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, pleaded guilty to four specimen indecent assaults.

Another six charges, which he denied, were left on the court file.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, told him: “You have pleaded guilty to indecency offences against young girls and you must be stopped.

“There must be a prison sentence but it’s going to be suspended.”

Ward was given a ten-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.