A JUDGE has lifted an order forcing a sex offender to wear a fluorescent jacket.
In March, Judge Peter Dedman ordered peeping tom Stephen Cooper, 24, to wear the coat at night for the "protection of women".
Cooper has pleaded guilty to voyeurism after admitting he crept into a woman's garden and stared through her window.
He was supposed to wear the glow-in-the-dark jacket until sentencing on May 11, but critics said the order was like making him wear a sign saying "Sex Offender" and claimed it would not make women safer.
Judge Dedman reluctantly lifted the order after taking on board problems the jacket had caused Cooper.
The judge had ordered Cooper of South Ockendon, to wear the florescent jacket, after freeing him on bail pending sentence.
It was one of a set of strict conditions, issued under an interim sex offender's prevention order.
Judge Dedman has ordered psychiatric reports on Cooper, who will be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court next Friday.
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