A SEX fiend who struck on a bus after being released from an eight-year jail term for attempted rape is back behind bars for six months.

David Roscoe, 38, of Blackburn, performed a sex act on himself as he sat in front of the woman , a court was told.

He was then said to have got off the vehicle and beckoned to the girl as she headed for college in Rawtenstall.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge Raymond Bennett said he had an appalling record and the offence was nasty and very upsetting to the victim.

He added that some people might have thought better of Roscoe if he had admitted what he had done in the first place.

Roscoe still has more than 500 days of the unexpired portion of the eight-year term to serve, but the judge did not order he be returned to complete it.

He said that would still be hanging over the defendant and if Roscoe committed any other offences in the future, the court would be justified in bringing the remainder of the sentence into operation.

Roscoe, formerly of Aaron Avenue, Blackburn, was found guilty of outraging public decency by a jury after a two-day trial at Burnley Crown Court.

The panel had been told how the 20-year-old victim told bus driver Ian Clinton Moorcroft what Roscoe had done and said it made her feek sick.

The driver then kept watch on the defendant as he walked away from the vehicle and later "collared" him on Rawtenstall bus station, before dragging him into the inspector's office. Mr Moorcroft later picked out Roscoe on an identity parade.

Michael Lavery, prosecuting, told the court Roscoe had 77 previous convictions. In February 1995, at the same court, he was sentenced to eight years and had since been convicted of failing to notify a change in his address for the Sex Offenders' Register.

He was released from jail in January 2000 and the term did not expire until June of this year.

Mr Lavery said Roscoe knocked his attempted rape victim to the ground and dragged her 20 yards along Todmorden Road in Burnley.

He threatened he was going to have sex with the woman, made demands for money and struck her about the face , smashing her cheekbone, before he started to remove her clothing.

Anthony Cross, defending, said the outraging deceny offence was distasteful, but not grave.

In the ordinary way it would have been dealt with under the Vagrancy Act at magistrates' court, but the unusual decision was made to hear the case in the Crown Court.

Roscoe had been at liberty for 12 months before he committed the offence.

He said the offence was a matter of a similar nature to the eight-year offence in that there was a sexual element, but it paled into insignificance compared to the attempted rape.