A SEX offender who assaulted three young girls in a Wrexham supermarket has been spared from prison.

Christopher Bradshaw, 44,of Yale Park,Wrexham, appeared before Mold Crown Court pleading guilty to three counts of sexual assault relating to incidents that took place on September 17, 2020, in the town's Morrison’s supermarket on Ruthin Road.

Prosecutor Elen Owen told the court Bradshaw was in the children’s clothing section of the superstore when he approached an eight-year-old girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, as she was with her family and dressed in school uniform.

It was said that he had pinched her in the ‘hip area’ and then carried on shopping as if nothing had happened.

The court heard that, at this stage, the child had told the family member she was with and a store manager was alerted to the situation. The police were called.

However, Bradshaw did not stop his assaults in the clothing section.

Ms Owen said the family member calling the police had noticed he moved on to self-serve checkout area and was approaching two more young girls.

One girl, aged nine, was shopping with her mother and older sister. When police spoke to her about Bradshaw, she said that he had squeezed her ‘left bum cheek’ and that it hurt.

His third victim, aged 16, had bent down in the supermarket to pick up a magazine and Bradshaw approached and touched her bottom. This was witnessed by the girl’s mother, the court heard.

The judge was told that store security then asked Bradshaw to wait for the police to arrive and, when questioned by officers, Bradshaw claimed that any touching was purely accidental.

He maintained his innocence, despite CCTV evidence at the store supported what all three girls were saying, until the first day of his trial before a court when he confessed.

Ms Owen told the judge that Bradshaw has two previous convictions, one dating back to 2000 for an indecent assault against a girl under 14 and another for breaching a condition his sex offenders’ punishment by writing to other children whilst pretending to be an 11-year-old girl.

The defence counsel, Simon Rogers, argued that Bradshaw’s assaults were thankfully all ‘very short-lived’ and over within ‘a matter of seconds’.

He said Bradshaw had been ‘struggling’ and openly admitted that he had a problem.

He told the court how this ‘frank and open’ confession would not have been easy and comes as ‘very rare’ when dealing with similar cases. Mr Rogers said this gives ‘rare’ hope that he could become rehabilitated and asked if there was a chance of this course of action instead of the need for prison.

Judge Niclas Parry suspended the 12-month custodial sentence he gave Bradshaw for two years.

He described the case as “extremely worrying” and a “spontaneous and unsophisticated attack” as he told Bradshaw: “In drink, you once again took advantage of a situation to give into those sexual urges and your uncontrollable attraction to female children.

“It’s undoubtedly an indication of the strength of those urges, and your real difficulty in controlling them, that you were prepared to undertake such high-risk sexual behaviour.

“Doing that in a public place and surrounded by other people. You simply couldn’t stop yourself from touching three females sexually.”

However, given his confession, the judge felt there was a “realistic prospect” of Bradshaw cooperating with the system and being rehabilitated.

As part of his punishment, Bradshaw must complete out a rehabilitation activity requirement of 80 days and follow a six-month alcohol treatment requirement.

Long-term, he must now register as a sex offender for the next decade and was also hit with a 10-year sexual harm prevention order that stops him from having contact with any female under the age of 16.