THIS peeping tom is walking free on the streets of York today after magistrates decided not to send him to jail.

Dorian Appleton, 41, was once a respectable businessman with a passion for breeding birds of prey.

Then he turned his attention - and a hidden camera - to a 16-year-old girl undressing.

Now Appleton's name will appear on the Sex Offenders' Register for the next five years.

He is also crippled with debt and going through an acrimonious divorce, a court heard.

Appleton, of Lingfield Crescent, Dringhouses, was one of the first offenders in the country to be convicted last month of a new "attempted voyeurism" law to crack down on would-be perverts.

He was warned then that he faced up to six months in jail for his crime, but magistrates in Selby yesterday handed him a three-year community rehabilitation order and ordered him to pay £400 court costs - at a rate of only £5 per week.

Appleton, who resigned as a partner in York building firm JM Butler following his conviction, will have to attend regular sex offender rehabilitation sessions as part of the order.

Appleton set up a CCTV camera - originally bought to monitor birds of prey - under a pile of clothes to try to film a young girl getting ready for bed.

He was caught when a second girl spotted the camera and unplugged it.

Neither girl can be named for legal reasons.

He denied a charge of attempted voyeurism, but in a trial dubbed a "test case" he was found guilty by magistrates in Selby.

The voyeurism law came into force in May 2004, only one month before Appleton installed the camera.

Yesterday he was back in court to learn his sentence.

Emma Pearce, prosecuting, urged magistrates to remember the "anguish, suffering and discomfort" inflicted on the two young girls.

But Appleton's lawyer Antony Farrell asked magistrate not to impose compensation orders or a fine. He said: "There is a divorce proceeding going on and as a result of that Mr Appleton's assets have been frozen. He has no money, and huge outstanding debts which he needs to find a way of paying back.

"There is no money for the pot. It would be like taking money from a man of straw."

Presiding magistrate Marilyn Jones said: "We have taken into account your apparent remorse, your previous good character and your financial situation. However, we are concerned about the psychological damage you have inflicted on your victims.

"Your behaviour showed an extreme abuse of trust, but we feel that custody is not appropriate."

Dr Jones told Appleton the three-year rehabilitation order would be "to punish you, to protect the public and to reform and rehabilitate you."

Updated: 10:27 Wednesday, May 04, 2005