A 42-year-old father of five admitted indecently assaulting four minors, Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.

William Wilson-Smith, of Eastfield Road, Witney, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting three minors and asked for a further charge for the same offence to be taken into consideration.

Robert Spencer-Barnard, prosecuting, said that Wilson-Smith had a history of sexual offences against minors.

He said that Wilson-Smith indecently assaulted one victim at a rehearsal for a theatre production.

Wilson-Smith had volunteered to help staff prepare for the show and he assaulted his victim while backstage

He was arrested on February 13 and told police he had a problem with his liking for young girls.

Wilson-Smith said he heard warning bells in his head when around young girls, that he wanted to touch girls over the age of eight and thought of sex with girls aged over 13.

Jonathan Coode, defending, said that Wilson-Smith was "disgusted by himself".

Wilson-Smith had suffered serious abuse at the hands of his brother as a child and that in all the offences for which he was being sentenced, he had only touched the girls through their clothing.

Wilson-Smith, the manager of a cleaning company, has previous convictions for sex offences.

In 1997, he pleaded guilty to stripping his clothing off, standing at the bottom of his garden and exposing himself to passers-by. He also admitted to an act of indecency for three to four minutes at a time while facing houses.

In July 1994 he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl.

Yesterday Wilson-Smith was sentenced to 12 months for each of three charges of indecent assault, to run concurrently.

He also has to attend a sexual offenders' treatment programme, will be under supervision for two years after his release from prison and his name has been placed on the sex offenders' register for the next ten years.

Judge Anthony King said in passing sentence: "You clearly have problems with sexual approaches to children and are at a high risk of reoffending. You have to do something about this situation or other children will be harmed."