A convicted rapist has been jailed for five years after indecently assaulting two young girls.

Aaron Pescud, 32, of High Street, Whitton, was found guilty in October of three counts of indecent assault against the girls, who were both between the ages of four and 10 at the time of the offences.

Prosecutor Stephen Clayton said Pescud abused his position of trust to assault the girls between 1992 and 2001, but said an exact date or year could not be pinpointed because both victims were so young at the time.

Pescud was between the ages of 11 and 18 when he committed the offences, making him 10 years older than his youngest victim.

Mr Clayton said: "The fact this defendant was trusted... there was clearly some grooming against the two girls and some planning of abuse of trust."

The court heard the nature of the third charge of indecent assault would be the equivalent of rape of a child under 13.

Since carrying out the indecent assaults, Pescud was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of two charges of rape in 2003.

In mitigation, defence counsel Mark Fraser said Pescud should not be sentenced using adult sentencing guidelines because he was under 18 at the time the indecent assaults were committed.

He said: "The court must sentence the defendant on the matrix that is most favourable to him."

Mr Fraser also told Judge Georgina Kent Pescud suffered from ADHD but had not been diagnosed at the time of the offences.

Delivering her sentence, Judge Kent said: "They were too young to understand the assaults were wrong. It was not until they were older they realised your actions were sexual abuse.

"These have caused serious and lasting harm to both the victims. The psychological harm has been severe.

"They have explained how your offending has affected them. This has had a detrimental impact on their working lives and personal relationships. They are both finding it hard to cope with the consequences.

"You show no remorse to your victims. Your attitude and behaviour to females causes concern. You do not accept responsibility for your action and do not feel the need to make any changes to your attitude.

"I am very concerned you do pose a serious risk to females you might encounter."

Pescud was jailed for 12 months for count one, 24 months for count two and 48 months for count three - the most serious of the offences.

Sentences for counts two and three would run concurrently and the jail term for count one will run consecuteively, meaning he will serve five years in prison.

Judge Kent said Pescud would serve half of his sentence in custody and would be released on licence, but report to the police.

He was also handed a sexual offence prevention order.