A convicted paedophile has been given a suspended jail sentence for flouting a court order designed to protect children from him.

Anthony Waterhouse, 67, wandered off with a six-year-old girl in a park, the judge who originally sentenced him was told.

Waterhouse appeared in custody at Leeds Crown Court yesterday to admit six breaches of a Sexual Offenders Prevention Order which bars him from unsupervised contact with children under 16 and orders him to stay away from playgrounds, fairs and other places where children congregate.

The ten-year order was made after a trial in September last year, when Waterhouse was found guilty at Bradford Crown Court of indecently assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Peel Park, Undercliffe, in May 2004. The jury was told Waterhouse had groped the girl under her clothes.

In December Waterhouse was sentenced by Judge Scott Wolstenholme to a three-year community rehabilitation order and told he must take part in a probation service Sex Offenders Programme.

At that hearing, the court was told Waterhouse had been disowned by all his immediate family.

His barrister, Martin Sharpe, had said his client now accepted that he had been sexually attracted to young girls for years. His particular problem had involved frequenting parks and he was now barred from doing that by the order.

But in court yesterday Waterhouse pleaded guilty to breaching the order on six occasions between January 1 and June 13 this year.

He admitted unsupervised contact with a six-year-old girl on four occasions, entering a children's playground in Leeds and visiting the gym area of a leisure centre in the city.

Prosecutor John Bull said Waterhouse had walked his dogs with the six-year-old in a Leeds park. He was on his own with her, in breach of the terms of the order.

A woman who knew who he was saw him spending about 20 minutes in the gym area of the leisure centre when families were present.

Philip Morris, mitigating, said Waterhouse had made an error of judgement and it was accepted that no youngsters had been indecently assaulted.

He said Waterhouse went to the gym because he wanted to become a member and did not approach any children.

But Judge Wolstenholme said it was a worrying case. "It is a serious breach of the order to go wandering off with a little girl," he said.

The judge said that although Waterhouse had not committed any sexual offences he had put himself willingly into a position of temptation.

His previous offence had been committed in a park after he had gained the trust and friendship of two young children.

The judge sentenced Waterhouse, of Rosemount Flats, Breary Lane, Bramhope, Leeds, to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

The judge said he regarded him as a risk to children and time he had spent in custody since his arrest in May was not sufficient deterrent.

The judge ordered that the sentence be reviewed every three months in front of him. He told Waterhouse that any repetition of the breach could lead to a substantial prison sentence.