Two teenage girls, one with a mental age of eight were lured into the back row of an Edgware cinema and subjected to a traumatic sexual assault.

Cleaner Carl Hooker, 23, walked free from Harrow Crown Court on Friday after admitting assaulting his victims, who both have learning difficulties, in the Belle Vue cinema on May 20.

The judge told the court he was taking a risk by not jailing Hooker, who admitted touching their breasts and putting his hand down their trousers as well as encoraging them to touch his penis.

Hooker, of Vicarage Crescent, Ramsgate Road, Margate, Kent, met the 13 and 14-year-old girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on May 19 as they were on their way home from the Station Road cinema.

He caught a bus with them to the Grahame Park Estate and gave them cigarettes while they waited for one of the girls' parents to pick them up.

Michael Gregory, prosecuting, said the girls returned to the cinema the following day and were met by Hooker who paid for their tickets.

"The three went to the rear seats with the defendant sitting in the middle of the girls and he put his arms around both of them," said Mr Gregory.

Hooker, who himself has learning difficulties, then unzipped his trousers before making one of the girls take off her trousers and knickers and lie on top of him.

The girls were then followed to the toilets by Hooker who sat down on a cubicle and undressed the same girl.

Sentencing Hooker to a three year community rehabilitation order, Judge Roger Sanders said: "I have decided to take a risk and try to help you come to terms with what is quite clearly a problem.

"You really did not appreciate how to behave towards young ladies and that your behaviour would be so serious and traumatic for them," he added.

November 14, 2001 17:38

IAN LLOYD