A pervert who groped six women after putting his hand up their skirts has walked free from court after a judge ordered him to attend a course for sex offenders.

Labourer Krzysztof Bak targeted women in their late teens and 20s who were wearing skirts above the knee and approached them in shops in Ipswich town centre and on one occasion in an underpass, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Robert Sadd, prosecuting said the first of the six sex assaults happened on March 8 at 3.15pm when the victim was looking at items in a shop and felt a hand go under her skirt and grab her bottom.

“It was a hard grip using the whole hand,” said Mr Sadd. “She was shocked and slapped his hand away and the defendant mumbled that he was sorry and walked off.”

He said that on each of the five subsequent assaults Bak put his hand up the women’s skirts and “groped” their groin or bottom.

Mr Sadd said Bak, a Polish national, was identified on CCTV footage by a public protection officer who recognised him.

The court heard that Bak had appeared before magistrates in 2011 for nine offences of voyeurism arising out of him taking photographs of unsuspecting women at Crown Pools in Ipswich with his mobile phone.

On that occasion he was given a community order and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work in the community.

Bak, 29, of Bransby Gardens, Ipswich admitted six offences of sexual assault on women between March 8 and May 19 and was given a two year community order during which he will have to attend the Thames Valley Sex Offenders’ Treatment Programme.

Sentencing him Judge David Goodin said Bak had spent three weeks in custody since his arrest.

He said Bak’s offending had escalated from taking “unpleasant and intrusive” pictures of women in swimming pools to “nasty, unpleasant and alarming” physical assaults on six women in Ipswich town centre.

Paul Donegan for Bak, who held his head in his hands and sobbed during the sentencing hearing, said the offences were opportunist and had happened over a period of six weeks.