A 44-year-old who attacked two teenage girls in the street in separate attacks in Swindon has been freed by magistrates to be assessed for a sex offender's course.

Despite being told that Court of Appeal guidelines are that custodial sentences should be passed on sex attackers who prey on unsuspecting victims, town magistrates adjourned the case against Thomas Jones for three weeks and agreed he could be freed on bail.

Gillian Barber, the chairman of the bench, told Jones, who had been remanded in custody on previous occasions, that he could go back into the community and live at a bail hostel while the assessment was being carried out.

Earlier the court had been told how Jones had approached the girls, one just 16, and groped them after trying to befriend them. He left them terrified.

Simon Brenchley, prosecuting, said the first offence took place in the early hours of April 13 on a 19-year-old victim who had been out with friends in the town centre.

After leaving a nightclub at 2am he said she had become separated from her three pals and sat on a bench nearby.

"The offender approached and sat down next to her. He chatted to her advising where she could get a taxi. He said he would show her."

It was at that moment Jones molested her. The victim managed to get away again and started talking to some passers-by, when the defendant disappeared.

Mr Brenchley said the second attack came the following week, of April 21, when a 16-year-old girl was wandering in the town centre at 7pm to kill time waiting for a bus after just missing the last one.

"She realised she was being followed," he told magistrates.

"He went up beside her on her left and began asking questions and chatting to her. She said she could smell alcohol and felt uncomfortable."

Mr Brenchley said Jones made rude suggestions before assaulting her.

At an earlier hearing Jones, who gave the court an address of a Salvation Army hostel in Sheffield, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault. He also admitted failing to surrender to custody in September.

Martin Wiggins, defending, said his client was an alcoholic and could remember little or nothing of the two attacks. Since being on remand Jones's condition had improved as he had not been drinking.

Magistrates adjourned the case to December 20 and said if a bail hostel were available he could be released for assessment for a sex offender's course. He was also told he must register as a sex offender.