January 2017 Convicted paedophile tried to kiss four-year-old girl on bus An already convicted paedophile who tried to kiss a four-year-old girl on a bus while her mother’s back was turned has avoided a jail sentence. Jason Charlton was given a community order at Bolton Crown Court after admitting the “opportunistic and compulsive” attempted sexual assault. The court heard yesterday that Charlton was waiting on the 540 Bolton to Wigan service at Moor Lane bus station at 5pm on October 1 last year when the incident happened. Prosecutor Charlotte Crangle said: “The victim’s mother got on the bus and while she was paying the driver, her daughter walked further onto the bus. “She heard her daughter say ‘no’ and turned to see a man who was sitting on a bus seat behind the driver with her daughter under her arms. “He was pulling her towards his face, about to kiss her. “The daughter was expressing her discomfort and was clearly upset at what was going on. “The mother wrenched her daughter from the defendant’s grip and walked and sat down further into the bus.” The driver stopped the bus in Wigan Road and despite Charlton’s pleading kept the doors shut until police officers arrived. Asked if Charlton had coaxed or encouraged the girl to approach him, Ms Crangle said: “Nobody saw any gestures or anything of that nature.” Judge Richard Gioserano imposed a three-year community order including requirements to undertake 35 days of rehabilitation activity and attend a sexual offender group work programme. The defendant had received a similar order in 2003 after admitting 12 counts of possessing indecent images of children, the court was told. The judge told Charlton: “Your distorted sexual thinking has clearly now manifested itself some 13 years later in what I accept was a spontaneous act towards this child, and a very worrying one indeed. “A community order is the best possible prospect of achieving the long term protection of children.” Charlton, of Rogerstead, Deane, was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life that includes a ban on working with children