Sex offender John Thomas has been banned from coming into contact with girls six years after he was convicted of indecently assaulting five 11-year-olds.

The life-time prohibition is included in a Sex Offender Order, applied for by West Yorkshire Police and made by District Judge (Magistrates Court) David Thomas at Bingley Magistrates Court yesterday. The order entails notification to the Sex Offenders Register and requires the 69-year-old to register with police and comply with a number of orders including a ban on entering certain parts of Keighley.

At a previous hearing in June, Thomas, of Prospect Mount, Keighley, was told to keep away from a school bus stop in Keighley after magistrates heard he had been spotted hanging around it.

The hearing was adjourned to yesterday with the pensioner bound over to keep the peace. The terms of the order meant he could not go to Crossroads, Keighley or Cullingworth.

Thomas's solicitor John Holden told the June hearing that he would follow the order on a voluntary basis.

Thomas was jailed for two years in 1996 after pleading guilty to six charges of indecent assault but has not been charged with any new offences since then. Thomas said: "I'm just glad it's all over and looking forward to getting on with my life."