A PERVERT who admitted exposing himself to two schoolgirls at a Poole pub last year was given a three-year community order this week.

Sentencing Mark Lemon, of Chesildene Avenue, Bournemouth, Judge Peter Johnson said jailing him would be inappropriate according to the guidelines, and he ordered the 56-year-old to attend a course for sex offenders to help address his ‘deviant tendencies'.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Lemon drove to the pub on June 6 last year and approached two 11-year-old girls who were playing nearby.

After asking them to look after his car he went inside and bought a pint, before returning and sitting on a bench near them.

Prosecuting, Nicholas Robinson said: “The defendant would later say that they spoke to him, but the girls said he asked them ‘are you naughty at school?’.

“The girls described how he pulled his shorts to one side and exposed his penis, and asked the girls to sit next to him on the bench.”

He said Lemon sat with the girls for more than 30 minutes.

When he was arrested two days later – the girls having remembered his car registration number – a laptop and computer tower were taken from his home and the four level one images, depicting “erotic posing but no sexual activity” were discovered, as well as 240 images of children in bikinis not deemed unlawful by police investigators.

Police also discovered that Lemon had searched on 22 occasions for ‘Lolita’ in 2007, described by Mr Robinson as a search term ‘used by paedophiles to look up images of girls under the age of 16’.

In mitigation, Brian Sharman acknowledged his client, a car park attendant, had initially denied the exposure when questioned – as a result of which his victims had been forced to give video interviews – but said this was down to ‘embarrassment’.

“He has impressed the probation officer with his acceptance that it was wrong to have done what he did,” he said.

Lemon admitted exposure and four counts of possessing indecent images of children. He denied one further count of exposure which was not pursued by the Crown.

Lemon, who has no previous convictions, was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years, and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order was made restricting his access to the internet, and banning him from being alone with children.