A PAEDOPHILE who admitted disgusting sex acts on a four-year-old girl has been jailed for four and a half years after his "unduly lenient" sentence was appealed. 

The Attorney General appealed against the decision to keep Kevin Rodgers out of jail in June. 

Rodgers, who lived in Chard at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to four counts involved gross indecency and indecent assault on a girl under 13 at Taunton Crown Court. 

He was sentenced to a three-year community order, a 90-day rehabilitation programme, three years of supervision by the probation service, and an electronic curfew between 6pm and 3am. 

But the Attorney General refferred the case to the Court of Appeal in London as he believed the sentence was "unduly lenient". 

Rodgers, who now lives in Belmont Street in Bristol, pleaded guilty to one count of indecency with a girl under the age of 14 between 1998 and 2002 at the trial in June.

The defendant also pleaded guilty to committing an act of indecency, and a further count of indecent assault on the same victim between July 19, 2001 and June 26, 2002.

Rodgers also admitted to indecency with a child between July 19, 1998 and June 26, 2002 after he incited a child to sit on his face while she was naked.

The court heard that Rodgers’ abuse stopped after he was arrested in 2002 for sexual crimes against other children.

On that occasion, he was sentenced to six years in prison for performing sexual acts on seven young boys aged six to 12.

He has since returned to prison three times for breaching his sexual harm prevention order, including in 2007 when he was spotted loitering outside a school in Bridgwater, and his latest offence in 2011 for which he served three-years in prison.

Paul Cook, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “He is now 42 years old. At the time of these offences he lived in Chard. It is believed this abuse started when the victim was about four years old.”

The court also heard that Rodgers had exposed himself to the victim, and on one occasion he had laid on top of her when they were both naked.

In the victim’s impact statement, she said: “During the time of the incidents, I was left feeling like I was the only one doing something wrong. I was supposed to trust adults and I trusted him. I couldn’t understand the point of living.”

Peter Binder, mitigating, said: “The pattern of offending was quite regular, quite distinctive and quite serious, but since then things appear to have changed greatly.

“He was released from his last custodial sentence in October 2012. He has served the equivalent of a 10-year sentence. Since then there is nothing to suggest he has committed any further offence.

“He has found work, secure accommodation and seems to have developed an understanding and a commitment to managing danger or risk he poses to children.

“The defendant has come to recognise his responsibility to his behaviour. He does now appear motivated to break the cycle.”

Recorder Donald Tait said: “These offences preceded the sentence in 2002. If these matters had been sentenced in 2002, how much longer would you have received in prison?

“I have been greatly helped by the pre-sentence report. It addresses significant issues and comes to the conclusion that, having not offended in six years, that the defendant can be managed within the community.”

The judge warned him at the end of the June trial that this was his last chance, and if he reoffended again he would be heading to prison. 

But that opportunity was taken from the convicted paedophile, as the community order has now been quashed and Rodgers has been jailed for 4 and a half years.