A SEX offender has been appointed to a £29,000-a-year post which will oversee a community's social and sports club, including a girls' football team, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Phil Hemmans, 38, was jailed for two years in August 2001 after he admitted having sex with a 14-year-old girl at a time when he was a director of an after-school care charity in County Durham.

Now it has emerged he has been appointed chief executive of the Rossington Development Trust (RDT) in South Yorkshire - and that he cited his work with the North-East charity as one of his achievements when applying for the job.

The discovery of his past has created a storm of protest in the mining village near Doncaster, prompting community leaders to demand his resignation.

But the RDT has defended its decision to employ Mr Hemmans, saying he had served his time and all checks and balances were in place to ensure he had no contact with young women.

Chairman of Rossington Parish Council, Eddie Jones, said: "We were startled to discover that he was on the sex offenders' register.

"If he has been found guilty in this manner, then I would have serious doubts about whether he can generate the trust of the community. His role as chief executive of the RDT is untenable."

RDT chairman Malcolm Clark said he had appointed Mr Hemmans with full knowledge of his conviction and had contacted all the relevant authorities.

He said: "His contract does not allow him to have any contact with young women or access to any of their files.

"The system of the country is that if you have served your time, you should be allowed to get on rebuilding your life. It should not be held against him for the rest of his life."

In April, the RDT will be taking over the management of the Rossington Miners' Welfare Trust, which includes a social club and sports club, with several teams.

But Mr Clark said Mr Hemmans would have no direct dealings with the clubs, as his role was "purely administrative".

Diane Field, who was on the interviewing panel and has since resigned from RDT, said: "He had not ticked the box for criminal convictions on his application.

"He told us at the interview he had been accused of sleeping with a 15-year-old girl, but would deny it until he died.

"Had he mentioned a criminal conviction, let alone being on the sex offenders' register, the alarm bells would have rung."

Mr Hemmans, who now lives in Bradford, was director of the Julie Graham Children's Charity, in Sacriston, when he committed the previous offences.

He admitted six counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and was sentenced to two years, and put on the sex offenders' register for ten years.

When confronted in his office by The Northern Echo, Mr Hemmans declined to comment.