A burglar who sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl was jailed for eight years yesterday.

But at Neko Noel Cann's sentencing Assistant Justice Archibald Warner repeatedly blasted the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for not pursuing a sexual assault charge which would have resulted in a stiffer sentence.

If the Crown had not decided to leave on file a charge of sexual assault, Cann, 26, "was looking at 12 years easily", said Mr. Warner who also expressed frustration the law had changed and Cann could not be whipped.

Cann, a construction worker, had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

But he had pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and committing the felony of sexual assault which has a maximum of ten years. Mr. Warner described the sentence difference as an anomaly of the law.

The court heard Cann, who lived at his mother's house in Horseshoe Road, Southampton, and at his father's house in St. George's, had broken into a St. David's home carrying a knife on August 17 last year.

He went into the bedroom of the nine-year-old, removed her pants and touched her bottom.

The girl thought it was her father but then saw it was a stranger and pretended to be asleep.

When Cann got up she ran to bathroom and locked the door.

When she thought Cann had gone she alerted her father who was sleeping in his bedroom with his seven-year-old and 13-year-old daughters beside him.

A search of the house revealed a trail of blood. Police were summoned and searched the area. Cann remained on the scene telling Police he was just walking past having come from a friend's house and was heading to Club Azure.

A child then spotted Cann had blood on his hands. At the Police Station Cann, who had been drinking and smoking cannabis, was asked to empty his pockets and took out the girl's underpants.

Crown Counsel Charmaine Smith said Cann said they were his daughter's and snatched them back and then struggled with officers.

Spots of blood were seen on his pants and tests revealed they matched Cann's blood, as well as the blood at the house and on the knife which had come from a cut on his hand.

Although the girl was not injured in the assault the court heard a statement from her father who said he and his three girls had been traumatised by the event.

Despite therapy he said he felt like a prisoner in his own home and was no longer a heavy sleeper but someone who became paranoid at the slightest noise.

"If I hear a noise I am up scratching around the house inside and out. All the lights come on. All my daughters are scared to sleep on their own."

He said they all slept in his bedroom now which gave him no privacy.

"It frightens me to think what he did to her and what he could have done.

"I hope it doesn't have a lasting affect on her but I will never forget this incident. It has given me another perspective on people."

Defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher said that by lurking around the scene Cann was hoping to get caught and she said Cann had pleaded guilty and was getting help for his addiction problems.

But Mr. Warner pointed out Cann had previously had treatment for addiction when he was given three and a half year's jail for burglary and shop-breaking in 1999 but was still using drugs.

Father-of-two Cann said he didn't believe marijuana was a drug.

Mr. Warner said he believed Cann, who had eight different convictions for 13 offences of breaking and entering, was an habitual burglar and a real threat to society.

Of Cann's guilty plea Mr. Warner said: "He had no alternative but to plead guilty."

He dismissed the idea that Cann was hoping to get caught by noting the defendant had given an excuse when initially challenged at the scene.

Cann had only confessed in the Police Station after being caught with the girl's underpants.

Mr. Warner said: "I repeat again, his greatest mitigation and defence has come from the fact the DPP has accepted this lesser charge."

He said the family had been "devastated, to put it mildly" and sentenced Cann to eight years in prison and ordered he be given psychiatric and drug rehab treatment.