A PERVERT who groped a 13-year-old during a concert by the Royal Marines band has escaped being put behind bars for a second time.

Martin John McHugh, 69, fondled the youngster over her clothing and tried to get her to touch him intimately.

He then slipped his hand inside her top as she tried to enjoy the performance of the military band at the Royal Albert Hall last year.

After she told her teacher, McHugh was arrested and admitted to cops that he had a sexual interest in children and had child porn on his computer.

McHugh, of Oaktree Road, Bitterne Park, Southampton, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault.

He also admitted child porn offences and one count of causing a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

He was handed a two-year suspended sentence in March at Southampton Crown Court.

But that term was deemed “unduly lenient” by the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, who referred it for Appeal Court judges to look at again.

Lord Justice Davis agreed that the sentence was too soft, but rejected Mr Wright’s bid to have McHugh jailed.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice King and Mrs Justice Andrews, said McHugh had been given too much credit for his late guilty plea.

McHugh’s crime was “of an exploitative nature” and displayed “numerous unpleasant aspects,” he added.

But it was not a case where there had been a breach of trust and the victim was not viewed as particularly vulnerable, the judge said.

McHugh had also been undergoing a sex offenders’ treatment programme and was “making considerable progress”, the court heard.

Refusing to jail him, Lord Justice Davis concluded: “This court is not prepared to interfere.”