A PENSIONER found guilty of sexually abusing teenage girls has been jailed.

Miklos Szabo, aged 81, gave the 14-year-old girls drink, cigarettes and cash if they allowed him to perform sex acts on him, a six-day trial heard.

He was found guilty of five counts of sexual activity with children and was cleared of four counts. He was sentenced to threeand- a-half years in prison at Bolton Crown Court.

But Myles Wilson, defending, said there were exceptional circumstances which could allow the judge to give him a suspended sentence. He said the girls went to Szabo’s flat in Bolton and “instigated what was going on”, Mr Wilson also told the court Szabo has been a victim of a serious arson attack as a consequence of the offences.

Szabo, whose address cannot be revealed for legal reasons, has also attempted suicide twice.

He has been on bail throughout the proceedings.

Mr Wilson said: “He is physically frail and unsteady on his feet. He feels any prison sentence would be a death sentence.

“He feels he would not be able to survive.”

Sentencing him, Judge Timothy Clayson, said: “You knew they were schoolgirls. Instead of considering them as vulnerable children, you saw them as young and appealing prostitutes.

“As to your age and health, I did make an allowance but you are relatively robust, having observed you during the trial, and you are not so ill that a prison sentence would be inappropriate.”

The offences happened in 2008 and 2009. In 2006, police had warned him about having young girls at his flat, and in 2008, before the offences, the mother of one of the girls went round and told him not to have anything to do with her daughter.

That was followed by a visit from the police.