A PERVERT who performed a sex act in front of a 12-year-old girl and sent her photographs of his genitals has avoided immediate custody.

Ian Maiden was when caught after the victim's mother found the image alongside a number of sexualised messages when she searched her daughter's mobile phone.

The 47-year-old was arrested in December 2017 and was eventually charged two years' later with performing a sex act in the presence of a child and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

Aisha Wadoodi, prosecuting, said the defendant had performed the sex attack where other people could see but only the victim witnessed his behaviour.

She said: “He had his trousers down around his knees and was playing with his genitals.”

The victim’s mother found a number of messages, including a photograph of his genitals, from Maiden on her daughter’s phone, took screenshots and contacted the police.

The messages were of a sexual nature, she said: “He has called her beautiful and said he was jealous when she mentioned other boys. He told her in one message that she had the best bum she had ever seen and won’t mind being pinned down by her.”

Maiden denied he was performing a sex act but was merely fondling his genital, as he suffered from erectile dysfunction, Miss Wadoodi added: “He said he didn’t do it for sexual reasons, he did it because he was bored.”

Miss Wadoodi said the young girl would always respond to Maiden's sexualised messages with anodyne responses such as 'ok and why'.

The court heard how Maiden said the girl had contacted him originally but accepted he had sent her a picture of his genitals.

Maiden, formerly of Hartlepool but now of Blenheim Road, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to both charges at an earlier hearing.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, told the court that Maiden's behaviour had cost him his marriage and relationship with most of his children.

He said: "His eldest child no longer has anything to do with him; his wife and three of his other children live elsewhere and he lives with his eldest son, who is with him in court."

Following his arrest, he was given advice to get support and help to deal with his offending and Mr Constantine said that is exactly what he did but his client is unable to access mental health support from one specialist charity until he has been sentenced.

He added: "He is at a loss to explain why he acted like he did."

A report from the probation service assessed that Maiden was a low risk of re-offending, the court heard.

Judge Peter Armstrong said he took the delay in the investigation coming to court into account when he was deciding on the appropriate sentence for the offences.

He said: "You made full admissions right at the outset and given advice about help that could be given to you, which you took advantage of.

"The victim and her family have had to wait a considerable amount of time, for too long, for this matter to come to court. That is not to say that any of that was your fault, you have done everything that you could."

Maiden was sentenced to four months in custody, suspended for two years, for the performing the sex act in front of the girl. He was also given a two-month concurrent suspended sentence for the messages.

An NSPCC Spokesperson said: “Maiden’s appalling behaviour is yet another disturbing example of how easy it is for predators to target young victims online, and send them sickening messages and images.

“More needs to be done to stop this happening. The recent appointment of Ofcom as online harms regulator represents a great step towards a safer internet, but until it is given the power and resources to hold tech giants fully to account, offenders like Maiden could continue to see online platforms as ‘one-stop shops’ to target children around the UK.”