A FOOTBALL hooligan who groped a 14-year-old girl on a bus has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Drunken Kevin Jenkins, 45, sexually assaulted the schoolgirl as she made her way home from the ice rink in Bristol city centre.

Jenkins asked the teenager to eat a Malteser out of his hand before grabbing her thighs and buttocks as she walked past, Bristol Magistrates' Court heard.

The court was told the assault, which Jenkins admitted at an earlier hearing, had left the girl feeling withdrawn, frightened and embarrassed.

Father-of-six Jenkins targeted the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at 10.45pm on January 16 after drinking heavily with a friend.

Neil Treharne, prosecuting, said Jenkins put his leg across the gangway of the bus to stop the girl passing then told her she could only get by if she ate one of his Maltesers.

When she refused, he asked her to eat it from his hand before forcing the chocolate into her mouth, the court heard.

Mr Treharne said that as he allowed the teenager to pass him, Jenkins rubbed the girl's thighs and buttocks with his hands before telling her to "jog on".

The court was told the teenager now suffers with anxiety and had felt "physically sick" on seeing Jenkins at a bus stop since the attack.

Mr Treharne said Bristol Rovers supporter Jenkins, of Mancroft Avenue, Lawrence Weston, had 17 offences to his name and had been made the subject of a football banning order.

Victoria Ellis, defending, said her client was ashamed and disgusted by his actions. She said: "He has six children and if something like this happened to one of his own daughters he would be horrified. He has a very sketchy memory of that night and the only way he can explain his behaviour is that he had consumed an extremely large amount of alcohol."

Magistrates handed Jenkins a 10-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

He will be added to the sex offenders' register and was told to take part in a 12-month community order, attend a programme for substance-related crime, pay £250 in compensation to the girl and £60 court costs.