A SUPERMAN onesie sex attacker has been given a community order because he would not ‘receive the help he needs in jail' said a Judge.

Leon Ridgeway, 29, of Glebe Street, Leigh, pleaded guilty last month to attempting to sexually assault a 14 year old, sexually assaulting a 15-year-old and two offences of taking indecent photographs.

The incidents took place on May 1 last year at the Wigan Royal Albert and Edward Infirmary where Ridgeway was staying overnight with his young step-child.

A 14-year-old girl was in the same ward suffering from an eating disorder.

During the night he repeatedly peered through her hospital bed curtains, while dressed in a superman onesie, then went into her cubicle and lifted the blanket covering her stomach, believing she was asleep, but when she opened her eyes he left.

Before the attempted attack the court heard how he had searched the internet for ‘sleep assault’ and ‘night time assault’ on his mobile phone- which when later seized was also found to have four photographs on it of a 15-year-old girl, in which she was asleep and her underwear had been moved to expose her bra and her pubic area in two of them.

Sarah Holt, prosecuting, said the 14-year-old girl, frightened by his behaviour, sent a Facebook message to a friend for help and she suggested she write a note for staff.

She did this on a paper towel and handed it to a nurse and the social services and police were notified.

Judge Clement Goldstone, the recorder of Liverpool Crown Court, told Leon Ridgeway that his on-line research indicated “a degree of planning and the depths to which you were prepared to go to satisfy your sexual urges.”

Ridgeway had previously denied the allegations against him but after expert evidence showed his on-line searches while at the hospital he dramatically changed his plea in court last month and broke down in tears.

Judge Goldstone said: “The facts of this case make troubling and very unusual reading.

“You are a man who has to face serious sexual issues about your attraction to young girls.

"Until recently you were in denial about what motivated you and about that attraction.

“At last you are acknowledging what you did and the fact that you need help to address your problem and now having lanced the boil of this depravity you are anxious to get that help.”

He pointed out that Ridgeway had only pleaded guilty when an expert had destroyed the “last vestiges of your defence”  but there was now hope that “depravity had been nipped in the bud.”

The judge said that if he gave him the appropriate prison sentence it would “not be long enough for him to receive help” and while he would have been punished his problems would not have been addressed.

He told him the community sentence he was passing was in reality a suspended sentence.

He was given a three year community order with attendance on the stringent Northumbria Sex Offenders Group programme and 40 days rehabilitation activity.

Judge Goldstone added: “The risk of you re-offending is assessed as high unless you respond to treatment.

Ridgeway was also ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work and for the next six months is subject to a 7pm to 7 am curfew with an electronic tag.

He was also warned that if he breached the orders in any way he would be sent to jail for 22 months.

He also had to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years and the judge made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years.

Judge Goldstone concluded: “These matters must have been truly dreadful experiences from which the victims will need time and perhaps even counselling to recover.”

Katy Appleton, defending, said that Ridgeway, who has no similar previous convictions, was genuinely remorseful and had been frank in his interview with probation.

She said: “He is now separated from his wife because of these proceedings, lost his friends, family and employment and is socially isolated. He has not allowed himself any internet access.”