Judge criticized for molester sentence

OXFORD, England, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A children's advocate criticized the decision of an English judge who freed a pedophile and suggested his victim could buy a bicycle with her compensation.

Eric Cole, 71, admitted to touching the 6-year-old girl as she played in a garden, The Telegraph reported. The child's mother interrupted the incident, but Cole has a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a child, the newspaper reported.

Oxford Crown Court Judge Julian Hall gave Cole a nine-month suspended sentence, The Telegraph said. Hall also ordered Cole to pay about $490 in compensation, saying, "If it buys her a new bicycle, that's the sort of thing that might cheer her up."

Elaine Peace, British director of children's services for the children's charity NCH, said that was inappropriate.

"Any proposal by a serving judge that a sex attack on a child can be compensated by a gift is wholly unacceptable and shows a complete lack of understanding of the severity of the effects of sexual abuse on a child," Peace told The Telegraph.

Hall also ordered Cole to attend a sexual offenders program and prohibited him from being alone with children younger than 16 for five years.