A DAD has criticised the sentence given to a Crewe university lecturer who was imprisoned for exposing himself to his 17-year-old daughter.

The incensed parent, who cannot be named for legal reasons, believes Derek Ashford’s total sentence of 16 months for exposing himself to two women and possessing CS gas was too lenient.

Ashford was previously employed as a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cheshire campus in Crewe.

Speaking after the sentence was passed in Warrington Crown Court last Monday, December 10, the father said: “Things need to change, people get away with too much. In the justice system there is just no justice there.

“I can understand why victims don’t come forward.

“I’m willing to make a stand on this. Someone needs to stand up to these MPs who give orders out to judges.

“What would have happened if it was one of their daughters?”

As reported in last week’s Crewe Guardian, Ashford, of Alsager, targeted two women on Longford Street and Manchester Road in Warrington on October 26, while driving to Wales for his son’s birthday celebrations.

When police searched Ashford’s vehicle they found CS gas, ladies stockings, a machete and pornography.

The court also heard Ashford, aged 49, of Alsager, had a previous conviction in the 1980s for sexual assault and exposure.

The teenage victim’s dad added: “What’s annoying me is I wasn’t even told when he was going to court, now I have found out he did it previously. What is the world coming to? What planet are these judges living on?”

In his defence, Ashford was said to have been under pressure at his job as a lecturer.

“It doesn’t compare to what nurses are going through, never mind what my daughter has been going through with stress,” said the victim’s dad.

He added: “She’s that scared that I have to pick her up from college and the bus stop.

“She’s scared witless, she won’t go anywhere without me, she is even sleeping with us and can’t sleep without a light on.

“We will have to sell and move away.”

• A spokesman for Manchester Metropolitan University said Derek Ashford had been employed since 2002, and under the Rehabilitation of Offenders act, the university would not have been told about spent convictions.

Ashford's employment with the university ended in November.