By ANDY DOLAN

Last updated at 08:15 09 May 2008

A paedophile who molested an 11-year-old girl escaped jail yesterday when a judge ruled the victim had "welcomed" his advances.

Judge Robert Atherton triggered outrage when he told Manchester Crown Court the child had invited Jon Dixon's attack as she had a "sexual awareness" that would make someone twice her age blush.

The judge rejected an assessment by the probation service that Dixon, 20, posed a "high risk of serious harm to children".

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Jon Dixon, who groomed and abused an 11-year-old girl but escaped jail, leaves Manchester Crown Court with an unidentified woman

Claiming the paedophile would not get the treatment he needed in the overcrowded prison service, Judge Atherton sentenced Dixon to a community order.

The judge had earlier referred to a psychologist's report which claimed Dixon was not a high risk to young girls but needed help.

Last night children's charities condemned his words.

Michele Elliott, of the child protection charity Kidscape, accused the judge of "partially blaming" the victim and called for him to be removed from hearing cases involving child abuse.

The court heard that the pair met in an internet chatroom called Flirtomatic in February last year where the girl was posing as a 20-year-old.

Website members can post images, rate other members for attractiveness and send "flirt icons" to initiate online conversations.

Dixon and his victim exchanged 900 text graphic messages over a two-week period before the girl told Dixon she was actually aged 12 - although her real age was 11.

He continued to pursue her with more graphic sexual text messages, emails and a request for pornographic photos before they met.

Judge Robert Atherton has been criticised after deciding not to send a paedophile who molested an 11-year-old girl to jail

"It was clear the defendant's attitude and intentions towards her had not changed despite her saying she was only 12," said Jonathan Dickinson, prosecuting.

On March 15 last year Dixon met the girl during her school lunch break and sexually assaulted her. Two days later they met again when Dixon tried unsuccessfully to rape her in an alleyway.

He was arrested a few days later when the mother of one of the girl's friends contacted the family after speaking to her own daughter.

Dixon, from Eccles, Greater Manchester, told police he had only kissed the girl at her request but later pleaded guilty to meeting a child following sexual grooming, sexual assault of a child and attempted rape.

Passing the three-year community order, the judge said Dixon had not deliberately sought out a child on the internet.

He said his victim expressed "herself in relation to sexual matters with an awareness which would make many twice her age blush".

Dixon was also placed on the Sexual-Offenders Register for five years. Last year Judge Julian Hall was criticised for jailing a child rapist for only two years, claiming the case was "exceptional" because the ten-year-old victim was dressed provocatively. The Appeal Court later doubled the sentence.

The age of consent in England and Wales is 16. Under current legislation, a male who has sex with a girl under 16 is guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse, even if the girl agrees.

The maximum penalty for the offence is two years in jail. If the girl is under 13, the maximum sentence is life.