A SEX pest who tried to get an eleven-year-old girl to expose herself to him has been jailed for twenty months.

Andrew Smith, 53, continued to try and get the child to engage in sex acts with him over a number of years.

Smith denied he had done anything wrong but was convicted at a trial at Swindon Crown Court last month.

The girl, now in her teens, had told the jury how Smith would ask her to expose her breasts to him when she was 11. The requests continued and by the time she was 14, he was asking her to perform a sex act.

Smith, of Bowleymead, Eldene, pleaded not guilty to four counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

But a jury convicted him on the offences, which took place between 2005 and early last year, following a trial.

Andrew Hobson, defending, said his client had no previous convictions which were relevant to the sex charges.

And he said Smith had a good work record and would lose his job if he were jailed.

“Until this, Mr Smith was a valuable member of the community as far as work is concerned,” he said.

Passing sentence Judge Douglas Field said the offences started when the girl was ‘very young’. And Judge Field said that he had to have regard for the sex acts that had been suggested by Smith to the girl when he passed sentence. And he said Smith’s not guilty pleas had effectively forced the victim to relive the abuse through attending court to give evidence to the jury.

He said: “This girl suffered humiliation and distress which will be long reaching.”

As well as being jailed, Smith has been ordered never to work with children.

He will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.