AN OSWALDTWISTLE paedophile who abused two schoolgirls and left them both traumatised has been locked up for 10 years.

Robert Foulkes, 60, subjected his victims to repeated sex acts.

He was caught out last December, when the mother of one of the girls, who had gone into a shop for just a few minutes, came out and was horrified to find him molesting her daughter, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Foulkes, who is married with a family, tried to blame one of the victims for his perverted behaviour, by claiming she dressed older than her years and came on to him.

Foulkes, of Curlew Close, Oswaldtwistle, had earlier admitted eight counts of indecent assault and eight allegations of assault by penetration, between 1990 and December 2010.

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life and given a lifelong sexual offences prevention order, which a judge said was to protect female children from serious sexual harm from him.

Under the order, Foulkes is banned from associating with any child under 17, unless under the supervision of an adult deemed appropriate by his local social services department.

The court had been told how the defendant, who had no previous convictions, was about 40 when he first struck and then carried out his obscene conduct with the second girl some years later.

He had been in custody for 28 days, after asking to be remanded when he pleaded guilty.

Philip Holden, for Foulkes, said: “To all intents and purposes, other than of course these offences, this is a man who has led a fairly industrious life, working until he suffered an accident some years ago.”

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