A MAN who followed schoolgirls while wearing see-through tights has been jailed.

Paul Joseph Rowlands, 47, had been unable to control his urges, a court was told.

Rowlands was a sex offender who had previous convictions including incidents when he had been flashing to schoolgirls in Llangollen.

Rowlands, of School Lane, Pontybodkin, was jailed for 20 months at Mold Crown Court after he had earlier admitted breaching a sexual offences prevention order imposed in 2008.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC said in 2008 Rowlands was jailed for 30 months for sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 14 and four offences of exposure.

In addition a sexual harm prevention order was made without limit of time which prohibited him from being within 25 metres of a playground, school, leisure centre and other venues.

Then in 2016 he committed a further offence of exposure which breached the order and he was jailed for a year.

The court heard that in February police received reports that he was following schoolgirls aged 13 and 14 on their way to school at a time when he was wearing tights or leggings that were see-through and he was not wearing under clothes.

Rowlands had indicated he was out looking for young female pupils aged between 11 and 15 to expose his groin to them, the judge said.

"You did not fully admit the extent of your offending but accept the motivation behind it," the judge said.

"The probation service say you demonstrated predatory tendencies and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment."

Judge Hughes said Rowlands had previously completed a programme to address his sexual offending but that had clearly not been successful.

He was now guilty of a deliberate, serious and persistent breach of the order.

He was not only within a prohibited area near a playground but had gone out deliberately dressed in the way that he was with the intention of exposing himself and frightened young females on the way to school.

Barrister Karl Scholz, prosecuting, said Rowlands admitted breaching his order by being close to a playground off Glanrafon Road, Mold.

On February 21 he was in Wrexham Road and Glanrafon Road in Mold and the police received calls from members of the public reporting a suspicious male.

On his own admissions he was on the look out for schoolgirls.

A woman witness told the police there was a man wearing tights stretched at the top of the legs and she could see his skin through them.

Another woman saw him not wearing any underwear and panicked at what he might do.

She caught up with them and advised the girls to inform their teacher.

One girl told police the leggings appeared to be a little see through

at the top.

Defence barrister Simon Mintz said there was little scope for

mitigation for such a deliberate breach of a court order.

His best point was that he confessed immediately to police and pleaded

guilty at the first opportunity in the magistrates court.

He accepted that he was following the girls and he was "totally candid

about the impulses he found it so difficult to control".

Mr Mintz said Rowlands was an isolated and lonely figure with low self-esteem and confidence

He complained of being the victim of emotional abuse as a child.

Mr Mintz said Rowlands had asked him to stress how remorseful

he was for what he had done.

"His remorse is genuine," he said. "He fell to temptation to the impulses that he could not control.

Rowlands now accepted that he needed more help to control them .

He lived alone, worked in a food processing factory for many years and

would attend any courses which could help him.