A Tyneside coach driver who indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl can continue to work, the High Court has ruled.

Geoffrey Snowdon, 46, from Wallsend, was convicted in February 2000 of two indecent assaults on a 15-year-old passenger during a school trip to Spain.

He was put on the Sex Offenders Register for five years and sentenced to 100 hours community service.

But on Monday a judge ruled that registration on the Sex Offenders' Register should not disallow Mr Snowdon from holding a licence to ferry the public.

I have had bricks through my window

Geoffrey Snowdon

Lawyers for Transport Secretary Alistair Darling expressed the minister's "great concern" after North Tyneside magistrates ruled Mr Snowdon could retain his passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) driver's licence, and therefore continue his employment.

But Mr Justic Pleming ruled that registration on the Sex Offenders' Register "is not incompatible with holding a PCV licence".

The case is an important test as to whether all PCV drivers who offend should be banned from driving coaches and buses while their names remain on the sex offenders' register.

At the time Mr Snowdon was coach driver for Cantabrica Coaches, a company he had worked for since 1996. He was reinstated by the firm after he completed his sentence.

He has since continued his work for the company, taking family groups on continental holidays, accompanied by another driver and a hostess.

'Sex offence'

After Monday's judgment, Mr Snowdon said: "I have had bricks through my window, and there were children in my house at the time."

In his ruling the judge described how Mr Snowdon relied on his licence for his livelihood.

He said: "It is also clearly the case that bus and coach passengers - particularly women and children - must be able to place their trust in the person charged with their safety and, to a limited extent, with their general welfare.

"He informed me that he has been employed by Cantabrica for six years.

"He is now not involved at all with children, and he emphasised that he has now driven approximately 48,000 miles since his conviction, and there have been no other offences or disciplinary proceedings.

"If it was Parliament's intention that conviction of a sex offence, and or presence on the sex offenders' register, automatically disqualifies a bus driver from holding a PCV licence, then it could have said so."

Rejecting the Government view, the judge said Mr Snowdon's conduct "must also be considered in context and in the round".