A pensioner who sexually assaulted a girl as she was playing in the street has been jailed.
David Evans targeted the primary school-age child after engaging her in conversation in Newark on 29 October 2022.
He then put his hand into her trousers before she ran away and raised the alarm.
Evans, aged 69, was arrested a short time later, interviewed and released on conditional bail as investigations continued.
Officers reviewing similar incidents were then able to link him to two further offences in the Newark area throughout the summer.
In one incident at a supermarket on 26 August, Evans engaged a young woman in conversation before reaching out to touch her over her clothing.
He committed a similar offence at Newark bus station on 30 September where he targeted another woman as she waited for a bus.
Evans denied all three offences when he was interviewed by police, even when confronted with damming CCTV footage clearly showing the earlier assaults.
He later pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault – including one on a girl under 13.
Appearing at Leicester Crown Court on Wednesday he was jailed for two years and added to the sex offenders register for ten years.
He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which will tightly restrict his behaviour when he is released from prison.
The order bans him from engaging in any public conversation with women he does not know, sitting next to them on public transport, and from having any contact with girls.
Evans will be closely monitored by a specialist team at Nottinghamshire Police when he is released, and any breach of that order could see him immediately returned to prison.
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Detective Constable Helen Sanders, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“Evans is a menace to women and girls, and I am pleased he has now been brought to justice.
“As he begins this very significant sentence I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of his victims – who gave extremely compelling evidence about what happened – and to the very determined local police officers who were able to link him to the other offences.
“In addition to this significant jail sentence, he is also now the subject of an extremely strict court order that will prohibit almost any future contact with females.
“If he breaches this order he will be prosecuted and could face an immediate return to jail.”
