A SEX pest who terrified two women by exposing himself in the street during a boozing session had his sentence cut on appeal.

At the time of the offence, Paul Holt, 39, of St Peters Street, Blackburn, was on licence and under a restraining order that banned him from exposing himself after an earlier conviction.

Holt was sentenced to two years in jail at Burnley Crown Court on July 30 after pleading guilty to the breach. The judge heard he exposed himself to two housewives near Rishton railway station.

He was ordered to serve it consecutively with the 879 days left on his earlier sentence, amounting to a total of almost four and a half years.

But Lord Justice Gage, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court yesterday ruled the sentence "manifestly excessive" and cut it to one year and 258 days.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Nelson and Mr Justice Field, told the court Holt had a 30-month sentence, with an additional 30 month extended licence period, imposed in October 2002 for gross indecency with a child. A restraining order was also put in place, banning him from exposing himself in public.

He breached that order when he was drunk on May 28 2004.

Martin Hackett, for Holt, argued that, in imposing consecutive sentences, the judge had, in effect, punished him twice, and too severely, for the same offence.