A dangerous sexual predator who abused a girl at his riding stables, starting when she was aged just 12, has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Peter Jones, who is on early release from a six-year sentence for similar matters, was told his rehabilitation would be set back if he was put back behind bars.

Instead, a judge sitting at Swindon Crown Court imposed a one-year jail term, suspended for a year, even though the 44-year-old has yet to start an extended licence from the other sentence.

The latest offences took place in the late 1990s, when the 12-year-old girl, an avid horserider, spent much of her time at the North Wraxall stables Jones ran with his mother.

During the following three years Jones repeatedly sexually abused her in and around his Mountain Bower yard.

Jones, now of The Halve, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and was handed a 24-month suspended sentence with no further requirements on Friday, December 20.

In 2009, he was jailed for six years with a four-year extended licence after the judge ruled he presented a significant risk of serious sexual offending in the future.