Pedophile Orangeman Robert “Rab” McCluskey amused himself by ogling a girl outside school

Petty pedophile Robert “Rab” McCluskey, a former NATO peacekeeper, was sentenced to four months in prison for performing a sexual act on himself while parked outside the school earlier this year.

The petite 67-year-old pensioner from east Belfast was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for seven years at his hearing last week.

Despite the prison sentence handed down by Deputy District Judge Philip Mateer, the former soldier and depraved sex pest is not in prison but has instead been released on bail pending an appeal.

At the end of his short trial earlier this year, McCluskey, of Rank Road, Dundonald, was convicted of exposing his genitals and indecent behavior on the Upper Lisburn Road in Finaghy, Co Antrim.

At sentencing on Thursday, Coleraine Magistrates Court heard how a Hunterhouse College student was walking towards the school in her uniform when she saw a parked car with the driver “looking straight at her”.

As the schoolgirl approached, she could see that the man was “lying on his back, his pants down, his penis exposed and he was masturbating,” prosecutors told the court.

The horrified girl quickly caught up with her friends and rushed to the school’s port to inform the deputy headteacher, who then alerted the police.

The court heard the student had the means to take down the car’s registration number and that police were able to use the number plate to arrest McCluskey at his home in east Belfast.

When questioned about the incident, he admitted that he was the only one driving the car, but insisted that it was “not him” who did the crime.

Defense lawyer Sean O’Hare said McCluskey maintained he had done nothing wrong and had indicated his intention to appeal both the conviction and sentence.

He filed a motion for clemency, saying this was McCluskey’s first-ever conviction and highlighting his employment and military records.

In fact, the garlanded ex-soldier brags about his military exploits on his Facebook page, proudly displaying medals and memorabilia from his time in the British Army alongside his biography, which says: “I’m a great guy.”

The former warrant officer and signalman was a member of the 40th Ulster Signal Regiment and deployed to Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

On his Facebook account he proudly displays his British Army and NATO medals, including several images of the gold and silver gongs on display and worn at official events.

McCluskey also made his Orange Order membership clear on Facebook by showing several pictures of the pedophile wearing his collar while marching.

The former champion of Bloomfield Templemore LOL 490 in Ballymacarret, east Belfast, also jokes on his Facebook account about being in the UDA and performing kneecapping on their behalf.

Asked if he got his medals from the UDA, the armed ex-squaddie replied: “Yes, East Belfast UDA, they give you lots of good badges if you have knee problems.”

In seemingly ironic comments under a photo of him holding firearms in his uniform, when asked if he cares about UDA weapons, he replies: “Yes, of course, lol.”

In sentencing McCluskey on Thursday, Deputy District Judge Mateer said the “obvious aggravating factor is that this was an offense clearly directed at and committed with schoolgirls outside an educational institution”.

“Therefore the sentence must reflect this and he has pleaded not guilty and, according to the pre-sentence report, intends to appeal this conviction so there is no deduction for a plea deal,” the judge said.

He told McCluskey that the case had “obviously” crossed the custodial threshold, so he imposed a four-month sentence, which resulted in a seven-year requirement for the creep to sign the sex offenders’ register.

The judge also imposed a five-year sexual offenses prevention order, which as part of its terms prohibits the pervert from being within 200 meters of a school between certain times.

After appealing, he was released on bail.