A PAEDOPHILE with a foot fetish has avoided being sent to prison.

Zolly Littlechild, 49, of Cardinal Avenue, received a two-year suspended sentence at St Albans Crown Court last Tuesday.

Littlechild, a paraplegic who stored videos on his computer along with thousands of images of girls, some as young as six, in provocative poses, used his disability to gain people’s trust, the court heard.

He painted the toenails of young girls and used his mobile phone to film himself sucking their feet.

When police raided his former flat in Harpenden they also discovered 36 bottles of nail varnish.

At the sentencing, Judge Marie Catterson told Littlechild one of the conditions now prohibited him from painting the toenails of any child under 18.

Prosecutor Ann Evans said the victims had been allowed into his flat by their parents to watch television. She said they had let Littlechild paint their toenails, unaware that he had a “foot fetish.”

She said: “His physical disabilities lulled them into a false sense of security about his motives towards these little girls.”

One victim, now aged ten, was told not to tell anyone what he did as the police would put him in prison. He filmed her putting both her big toes in his mouth.

Littlechild pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual assault, one of inciting a child to perform a sexual act and possessing indecent images of children.

Mrs Evans said that on his computer the police found 125 home movies Littlechild had made of his own activities with the children.

There were also 18,394 indecent images of children. The vast majority were at level one, the lowest level depicting young girls in provocative poses. The other 547 were at level two.

Defence barrister Maria Dineen said: “Mr Littlechild is deeply ashamed of his conduct and has shown genuine remorse for the effect his conduct has had on the little girls and their families.”

She said that a prison sentence for Littlechild would be difficult because of the nature of the offences and his disability.

Passing sentence Judge Catterson said: “It’s quite apparent you have what is called a foot fetish.”

She said sucking the youngsters’ toes for his own mental sexual gratification had been entirely wrong.

“It was an abuse and exploitative behaviour of young children,” said the judge.

The case was made worse, she said, because there was a breach of trust of the parents who had, in some cases, put themselves out to help Littlechild.

He was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and told he will be under the supervision of the probation service during that time.

The judge also made a Sexual Offence Prevention Order, which prohibits Littlechild from having any unsupervised access with a child under 18 and painting the toenails of any child.