A SEX offender walked free from York Crown Court for the second time after a jury acquitted him of child abuse.

The 12 jurors took less than an hour to acquit Angolan-born Paolo Francisco Ingles Gomes of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl in August 2001.

They did not know he was already on the sex offenders' register under the name of Inglesomes, and in May 2001 had been jailed for sexually attacking a York woman as she walked home in the dark.

A charge of sexually attacking another York woman was left on file.

Nor did the jury know that Mr Ingles Gomes had also been jailed for using a false passport in a bid to obtain benefits.

When the sentences were passed at York Crown Court in May 2001, he walked free because of the time he had spent in custody on remand.

The court heard then that he applied for asylum after he was arrested on the passport charge and that the Home Office was considering deporting him. By then he had already been in Britain illegally for two years.

This year, Mr Ingles Gomes, formerly of York and who lived for a few weeks in Castlegate, Malton, denied two charges of indecent assault and an alternative charge of indecency. Both girls and a boyfriend alleged in evidence that they had seen or experienced the abuse in a Malton flat.

Mr Ingles Gomes, speaking through an interpreter, said it had never happened and denied using the name Inglesomes.

He had been remanded in custody awaiting trial and the unanimous verdicts led to his immediate release.

Updated: 10:23 Saturday, March 16, 2002