Sex offender jailed after U-turn on 'lenient' sentence

A sex offender who walked free despite being found guilty of molesting a nine-year-old boy has been hauled back to court and jailed for four years.

Donald Pearson, aged 53, was given a suspended sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court in October.

But judges at London's Court of Appeal attacked the sentence as "unduly lenient".

The case was brought back to court after Solicitor General Edward Garnier launched an appeal.

Three senior judges handed Pearson, of St Martin's Terrace, Bilston, a four-year jail term and told him he would serve at least two thirds of his sentence and be placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Pearson sat in the public gallery to hear the case but was handcuffed as he left.

The court heard he befriended a nine-year-old boy in a park in 1984, telling him he did not need to go to school before assaulting him at a house.

The victim did not report the abuse until 2009.

Lord Justice Hooper told the court that the victim, now in his 20s, said "nothing the courts can do will ever make this better", but that he wanted his attacker to go to jail.

A report on Pearson found he was a "high risk to young boys".

Crispin Aylett QC, for the Solicitor General, said the suspended sentence was too soft. Pearson has since breached his prevention order by meeting two young boys unsupervised and visiting another sex offender.

Lord Justice Hooper said: "In our view an overall sentence of no less than four years imprisonment was appropriate in this case."

West Midlands Police today refused to release a picture of Pearson following a "risk assessment".