A DISABLED man who sexually abused two young girls over three years has walked free from court.

Robert Lawson Guy, 41, was spared jail and given a three-year community rehabilitation order after a judge heard how he desperately wanted help to prevent him offending again.

The victims and their relatives wept in the public gallery as the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, QC, announced the sentence yesterday.

Guy admitted nine specimen charges of indecent assault more than 20 years ago on the girls, in the Bishop Auckland area of County Durham, and a single charge of indecent assault last year on another girl.

His barrister, Aisha Wadoodi, said Guy should be given credit for his guilty pleas and his desire to seek help, while his medical condition - a spinal problem - would have made custody difficult.

Judge Fox told him: "There are many features to your offending which, on this occasion, make it far more important that you are given the help that you seek to prevent anything like this happening again."

Judge Fox warned that if he reoffended he would go to jail.

Guy, now of Finedon, Northamptonshire, was also ordered to attend a sex offenders' programme.