'A convicted sex offender narrowly avoided being sent to prison yesterday after he admitted stroking ponies - despite a court ban. Retired farmworker David Chamberlin was barred from approaching tethered animals as part of an order after he admitted outraging public decency by committing a lewd act with a horse in 2009. The 72-year-old, of Hartington Road, Stockton, appeared before Teesside magistrates for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to six breaches of a sexual offences prevention order on various days in May last year. The court heard that he was also involved in a further breach after telling his case worker that a prostitute he was using brought a child in a pushchair to his home in October last year. He was found guilty of associating with someone under 18, despite not inviting the child into his home. Chamberlin's sentencing had been delayed for psychiatric reports' - The Northern Echo. "I find it very strange behaviour that any man would want to stick his penis in a horse's mouth, quite frankly...By being on bail for a long time, he seems to have moved on from horses to prostitutes which is not a particularly good development" - District Judge Kristina Harrison