A 47-year-old man indecently exposed himself to an eight-year-old girl he abducted from the street after telling her to wash his hair when he was naked in the bath, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Adrian Wadley said: “Look, little girl, look at this,” after plying her with sweets, taking her for a bike ride and buying her a hat and gloves.

Wadley, of Aireville Road, Frizinghall, Bradford, appeared in custody at Bradford Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced for child abduction, exposure and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to all the offences that took place on August 26 last year.

When police found the girl at his flat, after her worried mother had called them to say she was missing, Wadley told them he was being a Good Samaritan and supervising her, prosecutor Andrew Kershaw told the court.

The girl was playing out with her bicycle when she failed to come home. Various people had seen her with Wadley, being pushed along on his bike.

She told the police he had bought her sweets, a hat and gloves and they had been for a cycle ride in the park and on a rocking horse. The child said Wadley had been naked in the shower and the bath, when she was told to shampoo his hair.

He had then exposed himself.

Mr Kershaw said that in April 2011, Wadley was issued with a police penalty notice for disorderly behaviour after he was caught in the disabled persons’ cubicle in public toilets peeping at women using the lavatory.

Two months later, there were complaints that he was hiding behind a bush watching children in a play area. Police found him concealed behind the shrub with his trousers undone. Mr Kershaw said both those incidents took place in Somerset.

He told the court Wadley was “systematically grooming” the girl so she would feel comfortable with him when he was naked.

Judge Colin Burn said Wadley, who had been in custody since August, had served the equivalent of a 15-month jail sentence.

He sentenced him to a three-year community order with supervision and a high-level activity requirement. Wadley must sign on the sex offenders’ register for five years and he is barred from unsupervised contact with children, inviting them into his home or working with them.