A 71-year-old man pleaded guilty of breaching a sexual offences prevention order at Fermanagh Magistrates Court yesterday, Monday.

Robert Liddle, with an address of Moorelough Road Lisnsakea was sentenced to two months in prison by District Judge Michael Ranaghan.

The court heard that on July 3 2019 Liddle approached a ten year old girl in Tesco Enniskillen after picking up a pair of earrings that he had found on the floor.

The girl was with her aunt at the time. It was revealed that CCTV footage showed Liddle bending to pick up something off the floor and then “walking towards the girl with outstretched arms”. It then showed the defendant hand the earrings over to the young girl’s aunt.

A police officer giving evidence explained that body worn footage collected by police when they came to the scene showed Liddle saying, “I approached a young girl”.

The defence told the court that a written reference had been provided to the court along with a letter from a doctor outlining untreated post-traumatic stress disorder relating to Liddle. The defence went on to say that there was “no attempt at inappropriate behaviour” and that the whole incident had “lasted two to three seconds”.

Mr. Ranaghan stated that the breach of the order was “technical in nature, but still very serious”.

He told Liddle that the custody threshold had been breached and sentenced him to two months in prison.