A SERIAL sex offender assessed as being "a high risk" to children has been released from prison.

Richard Kavanagh admitted groping an 11-year-old girl on a towpath.

Two years ago he indecently assaulted another girl by touching her breasts in Worcester city centre and has been accused of the attempted abduction of a boy from an escalator in the city's CrownGate shopping centre.

Kavanagh, aged 37, also had convictions in the Republic of Ireland for the attempted rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1997 and for two other indecent assaults, Worcester Crown Court was told yesterday. Judge Andrew Geddes released Kavanagh after making a number of phone calls to the Probation Service and considering that he had already served eight months in jail on remand.

The Probation Service, the judge said, had concluded that Kavanagh, formerly of All Saints Road, Worcester, had "a propensity for serious harm to children" and had held a multi-agency, public protection panel meeting about his future.

A pre-sentence report also said he posed "a very high risk of sexual assault including rape against boys and girls".

The risk was at its greatest, said the report, if he was unsupervised and if he drank alcohol to excess.

But Judge Geddes said probation officers had concluded that, if properly managed, the risk could be reduced to an acceptable level.

He gave Kavanagh a three-year community order with a condition that he be supervised and live at a fixed address for six months.

The judge also passed a sex offences prevention order which stops the defendant having contact with children under the age of 16.

Kavanagh must also sign the sex offenders' register for five years.

But the judge said he had considerable concerns about the case because Kavanagh could not be supervised 24 hours a day.

Kavanagh admitted sexually assaulting a girl last year after pretending there was a wasp near her.

He had been drinking and touched the top of her leg.

He was quickly caught and remanded in custody in August.

Nigel Stelling, defending, said Kavanagh had only steadied the boy on the escalator and the facts in that case "had been distorted".

Although he was initially accused of attempted abduction, he was later cleared by magistrates of a sexual offence on the boy.

Mr Stelling said he had served his sentence on remand for groping the girl.

The judge warned Kavanagh that if he committed another sex crime against children he could expect a harsh sentence.

After the hearing, West Mercia Constabulary declined to release a picture of Kavanagh and requested that his new address be withheld.