A GYMNASTICS coach from Knutsford, who was branded ‘disgusting’ by a judge after indecently assaulting two young girls, has had his jailed sentence slashed by the Court of Appeal.

On November 20, 2015, Martin James O’Hara, 51, of Goughs Lane, was jailed for six years at Lewes Crown Court on eight counts of indecent assault.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker told London’s Appeal Court, on Friday, February 17, that O’Hara taught teenage girls for 25 years.

O’Hara was initially investigated by police following a complaint in 2013 about his ‘inappropriate behaviour’.

The two teenage victims, for which O’Hara received the convictions, were aged between 14 and 15 years old and 12 and 13 years old when he abused them in the 1990s.

O’Hara denied assaulting the two girls but the jury disbelieved him and he was found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and handed the six-year jail sentence.

He kissed one of the girls and touched her buttocks, breasts and thigh. The defendant also ‘cuddled’ the other victim and groped her.

He was acquitted in relation to another complainant, but the judge who jailed him described his crimes as a ‘catalogue of disgusting, serious sexual behaviour’.

He had no previous convictions, the court heard, and his lawyers argued on Friday that his jail term was far too tough.

Mr Justice Baker agreed that ‘taking into account the overall criminality involved’ the sentence ‘was too long’.

He reduced O’Hara’s jail term from six years to four years.

Earlier the judge, who was sitting with Lady Justice Thirlwall and Judge Richard Marks QC, dismissed O’Hara’s challenge to his convictions.

O’Hara applied for a single judge appeal last year for leave on the convictions, but was unsuccessful. The case was then appealed with the three top judges who also dismissed the challenges to O’Hara’s conviction but granted a shorter sentence.