A former Customs officer who admitted to sexually assaulting two girls walked out of Magistrates' Court yesterday with a suspended sentence.

Before a packed gallery in the afternoon court session, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner sentenced Glen O'Neil Alban to three years of probation.

In a July hearing, Glen Alban, 40, of Sandys Parish, admitted to sexually exploiting the two girls on separate occasions.

The court heard then that Alban touched a girl under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose between June 1 and July 12, 1985.

During that time, Alban rubbed the girl's privates with his hands and shoved his hands down her pants. He also did similar acts to the other victim this year.

Mr. Warner adjourned the case pending the results of psychiatric and social inquiry reports.

And yesterday, after Mr. Warner reviewed the reports, he handed down his judgment and said: "This is a man previously of good character, employed by Government for a number of years.'' Mr. Warner added that the reports did not indicate to him that Alban would be a repeat offender and because of that, he did not think that a custodial sentence was warranted for Alban.

He gave Alban three years' probation and ordered him to report to Westgate Correctional Facility periodically to take part in a special treatment programme for sex offenders.

Members of the Department of Public Prosecutions said they intended to appeal the matter.