An advertising account manager jailed for a string of sex offences against two under-age girls has had his sentence reduced on appeal.

Philip David Faragher Thomson, 42, of Andreas, was sentenced in October at the Court of General Gaol Delivery after being found guilty by juries in two separate trials.

He was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault against girls under 16 and three charges of procuring an act of gross indecency.

Sentencing him to seven years in jail, Deemster Kainth told him: ’I deem you as an individual who is dangerous to females under the age of 16.’

Thomson denied all the charges and appealed against both conviction and sentence. Now the appeal court has upheld his conviction, saying his appeal had no merit and should not have been appealed.

But Judge of appeal Jeremy Storey QC and Deemster David Doyle concluded that Thomson’s seven-year jail term was ’manifestly excessive’ and reduced the total sentence to one of five years.

They said they did not wish in any way to belittle the serious offending behaviour of the appellant and the significant impact it had had on his victims.

The appeal judges recognised that there was little mitigation in this case and serious aggravating factors including a significant disparity in ages in relation to one of the victims who had been a young teenager at the time.

But they said the appeal court must ’objectively ensure it is not unduly impacted by the revulsion right thinking members of society would feel’ upon being confronted with such serious offences.

Dismissing the appeal against conviction, the judges said they were seeing too many unarguable appeals and urged advocates to advise their clients on the need to reflect upon the position carefully.