A SERIAL flasher escaped jail yesterday after exposing himself to two girls - a month after he was convicted of similar sex acts.

Kevin Heels, 31, left the girls, aged 13 and 14, embarrassed and alarmed after he exposed himself in a cemetery in daylight.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Heels, of West End Villas, Crook, waited for the two girls as they walked home from church confirmation classes on May 7.

As they passed the cemetery in Blackhill, near Consett, he called out to them. John Evans, prosecuting, told the court how Heels then followed the girls, and passed them, before jumping out from behind a bus shelter.

The youngsters fled and Heels was arrested after he was spotted by an off-duty police woman as he made off.

Just a month earlier, Heels had been given a combination order by Darlington magistrates, with a condition that he attend a sex offenders' treatment course.

Judge Gerard Harkins deferred sentence for six months after Heels pleaded guilty to indecency with a child, on condition that he complete the sex offenders' programme.