A MAN who stalked and molested two girls walking to school has been jailed and told he faces deportation on his release.

Matus Vajdik, 24, offered no explanation for the sex attacks on the girls, 13 and 14, Burnley Crown Court was told.

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Both victims needed counselling after the early-morning confrontations with powerfully-built Vajdik, who struck in a subway and alleyway in Burnley.

Jailing the Slovakian warehouse worker for three-and-a-half years, Judge Beverley Lunt said that one of the most disturbing features of the case was that, within minutes of him carrying out each attack, he could be seen on CCTV following other schoolgirls.

She said: “I have read the pre-sentence report and I observed your reluctance to accept that you were motivated by your own sexual desires.”

The judge also blasted staff at Burnley Bus Station, who told the second girl, when she asked to use the phone to report what had happened to her, that they were ‘too busy’.

Judge Lunt said: “I find it a very sad statement on our society that when she sought refuge at the bus station, and asked to use the telephone, the reception, rather than to assist a 14-year-old girl said that they were too busy.”

Addressing Vajdik directly she added: “So having suffered this attack at your hands, she has to get a bus home to her brother in order to get help.”

Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, said the first offence took place on December 6, at around 8.15am, when Vajdik began following a 13-year-old girl, dressed in her school uniform, as she walked through the subway underneath Centenary Way.

He grabbed hold of her leg and put his hand underneath her skirt, touching her bottom over her underwear, before she managed to break free.

One of her friends, waiting for the girl nearby, heard her pleading with Vajdik to stop and leave her alone, the court heard.

The following morning a 14-year-old girl was walking to school, in a similar area, when she became aware of the defendant walking close by, said Ms Kehoe.

He grabbed the girl’s thigh and lunged for her waist, almost as if he was trying to physically lift her, the court heard.

Ms Kehoe said the girl screamed and she managed to break free, before Vajdik walked off.

Victim statements drafted by the girls described how they were both struggling to come to terms with their ordeals, suffering nightmares and feeling ‘angry’ about the attacks, which had also shattered their self-confidence, the court heard.

Vajdik, of Thurston Street, Burnley, admitted two offences of sexual activity with a child. He must sign the sex offenders’ register for life and was given a sexual harm prevention order, restricting contact with under-16s in future.

Paul Darnborough, defending, said when challenged over his behaviour his client, who has no previous convictions either here or in Slovakia, could offer no explanation.

Vajdik wished to offer his ‘heartfelt apologies’ to the victims and their families and accepted he was going to be jailed and asked to leave the UK at some point in the future, he added.

The defendant had originally faced two false imprisonment charges, relating to each of the girls, which were dropped by prosecutors.