A SERIAL sex offender was behind bars last night for a string of attacks that brought terror to a neighbourhood.

Michael Carney struck five times in as many months at a park near his Teesside home and on fields close to a school.

On each occasion, the married father-of-two was jogging in distinctive sports gear.

He was caught when police took one of his victims back to the scene and she saw him out running again.

After Carney's arrest last summer, it emerged that he had been accused of flashing at a woman near his home years earlier.

Detectives then found a number of other women who claimed he had exposed himself to them between 2001 and 2004.

Carney, 41, denied seven charges of outraging public decency, but was found guilty late last year.

He admitted four counts of sexual assault - two in the park and two near a school - and asked for a fifth to be taken into account.

Yesterday, Judge Brian Forster jailed Carney for 20 months and banned him from working with children for life.

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for five years and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

After the case, Detective Sergeant Mick Todd, who led the hunt for Carney, said: "This man clearly poses a risk to all females.

"We wish to thank all the women who showed great courage and strength in coming forward. Some of them had to relive their ordeal in court."

During his trial, Carney, a quality control manager at a plastics firm in Stockton, claimed he could not be a serial flasher because his genitals were too small.

He told the jury he was embarrassed about his genitals and produced photographs taken by his wife, Alison, a nurse, to show the court.

The woman he flashed at from the front window of his home in Fleetham Grove, Stockton, gave evidence during the trial.

Harry Hadfield, prosecuting, said the victims had been shocked by his behaviour, and were distressed about going to court.

The judge said the victims from Ropner Park and the attacks near Ian Ramsey School were now fearful of going out alone.

David Lamb, mitigating, told the court that Carney had lost his job following his arrest last summer and was now trying to sell the family home.

"He is an intelligent man with a university degree," said Mr Lamb. "He had a stable job and a stable family life until he threw it all away by acting in the way he has. Despite the fact he continues to deny his involvement in the offences of outraging public decency, Mr Carney is extremely remorseful for what he has done.

"He is remorseful not just because he has been caught and prosecuted and faces being locked up, but for his victims, as he knows they will have to live with the consequences of what he has done for some considerable time."