A MAN has been jailed for indecently assaulting a primary-school-age child – two years after he was jailed for eight sexual offences.

Ian Lowe, 59, originally from Culcheth, was sentenced for inappropriately touching the girl when she was aged eight or nine in around 2001 to 2002.

Eric Alan Lamb, prosecuting in Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, September 28, said Lowe was 42 when the incident happened.

Mr Lamb read part of the statement given by the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, about the distress it has caused her.

She said the attack had caused her to suffer from mental health problems.

Mr Lamb read: "One of the single things that have helped me through this are my children.

"I am not scared of him anymore but I do not want him near my children or trying to find me."

Lowe has one previous conviction dating back to November 2016, when he was sentenced to five and a half years in custody for eight sexual offences.

He was then made subject to an order which would restrict his use of computers and a sexual harm prevention order.

Mark Kelly, defending, said that penetration was not sustained.

He also stressed that it was a one-off incident against the child.

There was no evidence to suggest that it was planned and no sufficient evidence to say that he groomed the child.

Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings said the victim's evidence proved that there was some penetration and said her young age was 'significant'.

He said Lowe had been tickling the victim but then his hand slid down to touch her vagina.

Judge Cummings said: "It was an assault on a child under 13.

"This is the case of touching a child's naked genitalia.

"It is a significant factor that she was well below the age of 13 in that she was of primary school age."

Lowe was sentenced to four years in custody to serve consecutively with the existing five-and-a-half year sentence handed down in 2016.

A restraining order was applied to prohibit Lowe from contacting the victim.