A FLASHER who terrorised girls in a student district of Sheffield has been freed after top judges overturned his potentially lifelong jail sentence.
Kevan Welford, aged 46, approached girls - one of whom was an underage teenager - on four occasions and exposed his private parts.
In Crookes in December 2005 he even asked one 22-year-old student eating a bag of chips: "Do you want a sausage to g
o with that?"
He had travelled 15 miles from his home in Grassmere Crescent, Staincross, Barnsley, in order to target students and youngsters in the dark back streets of Sheffield.
Welford was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment for public protection at Sheffield Crown Court in November 2006, after being convicted of one count of committing an act outraging public decency, two of exposure and one of sexual assault.
Almost identical to a life term, the IPP sentence meant Welford could have no hope of being freed until he could convince a parole board it was safe to do so.
Now his IPP sentence has been quashed - and replaced with a conventional two-and-a-half-year jail term - by Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Andrew Smith and Judge John Rogers QC, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court.
Since Welford has already served his new sentence, he will be freed immediately.
After exposing himself in Crookes Welford twice preyed on a 15-year-old girl at a bus stop, who kicked him before running off.
He then moved on to Ranmoor, where he flashed at an 18-year-old as he emerged from an alley with the words: "Excuse me, love."
Welford's barrister, Matthew Stanbury, admitted his client's actions "may have been somewhat terrifying" for his victims, but argued he didn't deserve what is tantamount to a life sentence for relatively minor - if repetitive - offending.
Mr Justice Andrew Smith, giving the judgment of the court, condemned the offences, saying: "He drove 15 miles across South Yorkshire to those particular areas of Sheffield where there are dark streets and young people."
But the judge allowed the appeal, adding: "In this case the only physical assault was the grabbing of one victim's wrist.
"In the circumstances we accept the submission that there was no sufficient foundation in this case for a finding of dangerousness and the imposition of a sentence of IPP.
"Accordingly we quash the sentence of imprisonment for public protection and impose in its stead a sentence of two-and-a-half years' imprisonment."
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