A sex pervert who attacked three women in Bromsgrove was unable to stand trial because of illness.

Gerald Stokes molested one victim at a doctor's surgery in the town and another in broad daylight in the street, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Judge Michael Mott told the jury he was unfit to plead and asked them to hear the case without Stokes being present.

They found that the defendant had committed three counts of indecent assault over a five-month period. They were not asked to return formal verdicts.

Defence counsel Nigel Hall asked for Stokes, aged 49, of Willow Close, Bromsgrove, to be sentenced after medical reports were complete.

Edward Coke, prosecuting, described how Stokes went to Churchfields surgery in Recreation Road to fetch a prescription.

He was behind a woman in a queue by reception on November 17, 2003 when he touched her bottom and stroked it.

After groping her bottom a second time, she confronted him and then left. He followed but she ran to her car to escape.

On the same day, he followed a woman in Kidderminster Road, Bromsgrove.

As they waited by a controlled crossing, Stokes grabbed her bottom and squeezed it. She challenged him and he walked off.

In a third incident in April last year, Stokes felt the bottom of a woman who had called at his home. She told police he also exposed himself.

Stokes, who has a low IQ and learning difficulties, insisted to police he was not in Bromsgrove on the day of the first assaults.

At the end of the case, Mr Coke told the jury that Stokes had three previous convictions for indecent assault and had also been found guilty of harassment and threatening behaviour between 1998 and 2004.