A GENDER-fluid sex pest is facing a long jail sentence after being found guilty of a broken bottle attack on a good citizen who tried to stop him molesting schoolchildren.

Dee Rigler gave his name as David when he was arrested after the attack in Bideford in February but has changed his name since being remanded in custody.

Exeter Crown Court was asked to use gender-neutral pronouns during a trial in which Rigler was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A judge ordered that Rigler should be examined by psychiatrists from Langdon Hospital in Dawlish and that the probation service should carry out an assessment of dangerousness.

Rigler, aged 26, of no fixed address, denied wounding with intent but was found guilty and will be sentenced in February.

Mr Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said the defendant, then called David and identifying as a male, was drunk and under the influence of drugs when he got onto a Barnstaple to Bideford bus on the afternoon of February 8 this year.

He approached schoolgirls on the bus and made sexual propositions as well as leering out of the window and doing the same to children walking home from school.

Another passenger named Thomas Osborne told him to stop and Rigler responded by threatening to kill him.

Rigler carried on with the same behaviour after getting off near Bideford Quay and Mr Osborne intervened again.

He followed Rigler to a bus stop on the Quay where he was drinking two bottles of wine and pestering schoolgirls.

There was a fight in which Rigler smashed a bottle over Mr Osborne’s head and then stabbed the broken glass into his face at least three times.

Rigler said he could not remember what had happened because he had been drinking cider and had been given methadone by a friend before leaving Barnstaple.

He was not taking antipsychotic medication at the time.