TWO young girls were cycling along a footpath in Delabole when 29-year-old Kieran Treffry ran after them, prosecutor Philip Lee told Truro Crown Court last Thursday.

He grabbed the ten-year-old who screamed and had the presence of mind to strike out. She hit him on the arm and told him she would call the police.

"Treffry looked angry and tried to pull off her top," said Mr Lee. "He pushed her and she nearly fell off before going to her 12-year-old friend who had seen what had happened and was also screaming."

The younger girl was crying and distressed when she arrived home but was unhurt.

Treffry was swiftly arrested and said: "I was in the park and I grabbed a little girl."

Interviewed, he told officers he was not clear what he was doing but thought his intention was rape, to try to have sex with one of them.

Treffry said he had been drinking before the incident and carried on afterwards. He also admitted he had had similar thoughts in the past about girls of that age.

Mr Lee added that Treffry, of Penmead Close, Delabole, who had pleaded guilty earlier to committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, had no previous convictions.

After receiving reports from two consultant psychiatrists who were of the opinion that Treffry was suffering from paranoid scizophrenia, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark QC made a hospital order under which he will be detained in a secure medical unit without restriction as to time.

It was necessary, he declared, to protect the public from serious harm.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.