A ‘FAMILY man’ has avoided a jail sentence for repeatedly performing sex acts in town centre shops while he watched unsuspecting young girls.

Over a period of up to eight weeks, Nicholas Carter regularly visited shops in the town centre and watched underage girls as he exposed himself.

But the 52-year-old, who was described as a ‘family man’ when he was sentenced at Warrington Crown Court on Thursday May 5, has been spared a prison sentence.

The court heard that Carter entered New Look in Golden Square Shopping Centre on February 2 this year and said hello to a 15-year-old who was in the store with her younger sister – around 10 minutes later the teenager realised that Carter was watching her while performing a sex act.

After the incident was reported to police the following day, CCTV revealed two further incidents involving Carter performing sex acts while watching underage girls in the shop.

On January 27 he watched a ‘young girl’ while in New Look’s lingerie section and was also caught on camera watching two teenage girls who were wearing school uniforms in the shoe section on February 3.

The victims in these incidents have not been identified.

These incidents led to two female officers patrolling the town centre in plain clothes to try and catch Carter and on February 9 one of them saw him in Primark performing a sex act while watching her.

Carter was later seen by the other officer in the store’s men’s department watching two young girls while performing a sex act and was arrested.

He admitted in interview that he had been committing similar offences over a period of six to eight weeks in shops around the town centre including Topshop and Debenhams.

His offences were committed while he was staying away from his Shrewsbury home in a hotel while working in the Warrington area.

The court heard that Carter, who has been married for a number of years and has three children, found his acts ‘more arousing the more naughty and dangerous it was’, carefully selected his victims and poses a ‘medium’ risk to children.

Victim personal statements from the 15-year-old and the police officer who witnessed Carter while watching the young girls in Primark were read out in court.

The officer said: “It genuinely shocked me and I felt uncomfortable, intimidated and uneasy.

“It is the one incident in my career that I felt at risk and I was disturbed by the incident.”

The 15-year-old said that she had been suffering from nightmares since the incident and thought she was going to be abducted by Carter.

Her statement added: “I’m nervous in public places and nervous in the town centre – whenever I’m out now I become convinced that I’ve seen him.

“I’ve suffered from anxiety and the incident has caused me distress – I will not go to the town centre on my own now.”

Carter, who had no previous convictions but has a caution for making an indecent image of a child in 2004, admitted five counts of indecent exposure.

Defending, Jeremy Rawson cited a number of positive references from former co-workers and said his client had given ‘considerable cooperation’ following his arrest while he had also taken steps to address his problems.

Sentencing, his honour judge Neil Flewitt added that the defendant had made a ‘full and frank admission’ and showed remorse immediately.

He ordered Carter to perform 120 hours of unpaid work and take part in a 36-month community order.

Carter will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years and a rehabilitation requirement of 60 days in addition to paying £340 costs and a victim surcharge.