A PENSIONER who talked about his sex life and offered cannabis to young girls as he gave them lifts has been jailed for three months.

Grahame Adams, 65, was sentenced after a judge told him he was concerned that he did not understand what he had done was wrong.

The pensioner, of Mulberry Grove in Rodbourne Cheney, had admitted two counts of indecent assault on girls aged about 15, and possessing cannabis.

James Patrick, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Adams clearly liked the company of young girls and his behaviour came to light by accident. In October last year, said Mr Patrick, there were reports a man had tried to abduct a young schoolgirl, putting people in the town on alert.

He said one girl, aged about 15, told her mum that she had been beckoned into a car by a man she didn't know.

"That was a lie," Mr Patrick told the court, but he said she went on to say how she got to know Adams because he gave her and her sister lifts.

He said the lifts were not sinister as he generally took them straight home, though he sometimes used a roundabout route. During the lifts, the girls said, Adams would talk about his sex life and offer them cannabis.

He also gave lifts to some of the girls' friends and would often be seen outside their school and would offer them cigarettes.

Mr Patrick said the offences took place when, after giving one of the sisters a lift, he leaned over and kissed her twice on the lips. The second indecent assault took place on her sister when he leaned round as she was getting out of the car and touched her thigh.

When police arrested Adams at his home they also found a small quantity of herbal cannabis, which belonged to Adams and his partner, who was given a caution.

Adams, of Mulberry Grove, Rodbourne Cheney, admitted two counts of indecent assault and one of possessing cannabis.

He insisted he had never offered the girls cannabis.

He had faced charges of child abduction, but they were left to lie on file.

Paul Higham, defending, said "For a man of his age he finds it incredibly difficult to accept that he is now branded a sex offender."

He said his client grew up in a different time and struggled to understand that what he had been doing was wrong.

Jailing him, Judge John McNaught said he accepted that the offences were at the lower end of the scale. But, he said: "What worries me is I don't think you understand how serious it is."

how alarming it can be to young girls and how concerning it is to their parents."

Mr Higham said that, had the girl not run home and told her mum a lie at a time when there was concern about an attempt to abduct a 10-year-old, then the matter would not have been dealt with the same way.

As a result, he said, the local police believed they had a gang of child abductors operating outside schools and that he was the tip of the iceberg.

He said that no doubt the girls regarded him as "here comes Mr Weirdo, he buys us cigarettes".