A PROWLER who followed schoolgirls and indecently assaulted them in the street has been jailed for 32 months.

Kevin Weighell, 30, pulled up girls' skirts and touched them on the leg or bottom, York Crown Court heard.

He also assaulted a woman in the street, grabbing her breasts and putting his hand up her skirt.

Simon Hickey, prosecuting, said the first attack happened on a 16-year-old in Knaresborough at 3pm on September 16, 2004.

"She said she felt the back of her skirt being held right up high so she turned round and the defendant was about three feet away," he said.

Weighell, of School House, Dalton, Thirsk, also molested a 17-year-old girl after crossing the road in front of her in Knaresborough on April 12 this year.

"As I passed him, he grabbed my bottom under my skirt," she said in a statement. "He grabbed it and squeezed and was quite forceful, which hurt."

In a third incident, an 18-year-old was walking in the town at 1pm on April 25 when she sensed somebody behind her and felt a man touching her right thigh and lifting her skirt.

The final attack happened in Harrogate on July 14 when Weighhell grabbed a woman from behind and put his hands around her chest.

He lifted the woman off the floor and put his hand up her skirt and assaulted her.

Firefighters from a nearby station heard the woman screaming and chased the defendant, spotted him getting into a car and gave the registration number to police.

Two of the girls also picked Weighell out in an identification parade three days later.

The defendant admitted four counts of indecent assault.

Howard Shaw, for Weighell, said he was in constant pain due to a medical condition and was on incapacity benefit after giving up a successful business.

Judge Shaun Spencer QC, sentencing Weighell to 32 months in prison, said: "These offences were unpleasant, frightening and upsetting for the victims and worrying to any court."

He said there was a high risk of further offending and said Weighell's reputation "lay in tatters".

Updated: 09:28 Tuesday, December 20, 2005