A paedophile who won a reduction in his prison sentence is back behind bars after stalking the family of the teenage girl he molested.

Alan Fairless had been jailed at Newcastle Crown Court after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault and three of indecency with a child.

The 29-year-old was locked up for three years, but judges sitting at London's Appeal Court ruled the sentence was excessive and reduced it to two years last November.

Fairless, of West Denton, Newcastle, who was placed on the sex offender's register for life, was released on licence from Durham Prison on December 13.

But within days he began to harass the family of his victim, whom he had plied with alcohol before indecently assaulting her when she was 13.

The mother of the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was disgusted his sentence had been cut.

She said: "The past few weeks have been unbearable. Neither I nor my daughter have left the house alone since we heard he was hanging around in our area.

"The whole thing has just been a nightmare for us. We are both seeing psychiatrists to try to put the past behind us, but this has brought it all up again.

"Things are so bad that the police have been taking me to the shops and they installed a panic button in the house in case he showed up.

"I just hope the judges who cut his sentence realise that they made a big mistake and maybe this will stop them being so lenient in the future."

Northumbria Police confirmed that Fairless was arrested last week for breaching his licence conditions and was back behind bars in Durham jail to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Fairless was released on licence after serving only a year after judges at the Court of Appeal in London decided he had not been given enough credit for his early guilty plea.

Mr Justice Davis, sitting with Lord Justice Rose, said: "It remains the case that he pleaded guilty at the earliest stage, which is particularly important in offences of this kind. It is also right that he had no previous convictions."

But the girl's mother said: "This man has completely ruined my daughter's life.