A SEXUAL predator was today jailed indefinitely for molesting a nine-year-old girl he had stalked from a bus and lured to dark woodland.

Kevin Toner, 20, was told he will only ever be released from prison when he is no longer considered a danger by Parole Board officials.

The judge at Teesside Crown Court, Recorder Jeremy Richardson, QC, said he was imposing the indefinite sentence to protect the public.

He said: "If you are ever released, it must plainly be when proper measures are in place to make sure you do not re-offend.

"You are, at present, a dangerous man who will cause serious harm to children if given the chance. I propose to do all that I can to limit that."

Toner, of Thomas Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, was convicted by a jury last month of sexual assault and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He has always denied the charges and still maintains he was not the man who molested the girl in woodland near Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, last September.

During his trial, the jury was told that Toner was also convicted in 2002 for sexual assaults on two young boys he lured to a caravan after asking them to play hide-and-seek.

Mr Recorder Richardson told Toner today: "The public, and in particular children, must be protected from you and your predations upon them.

"You pose, and are likely to pose in the future, a very serious risk to young children who you will trick in your classically cunning and predatory way."

Toner followed the girl and a friend on and off two buses on September 6 before asking the nine-year-old for directions and luring her into the woods.

He held a mobile phone to his ear throughout the girl's ordeal and tricked her into believing she and her friend would be harmed by another man if she did not do what he told her.

The girl was forced to undress before Toner abused her and took pictures of the attack on the mobile phone - which has never been found.

This afternoon, Detective Inspector Stan Drummond, the man who led the investigation, said: "Toner is a very dangerous man, and what he did to that girl was absolutely abhorent."