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MELBOURNE, Tuesday (Reuters) - Australian cricket umpire and former teacher Steve Randell was released from jail on Tuesday after serving less than three years of a four-year sentence for indecently assaulting nine schoolgirls.

Randell was released from the minimum security Hayes Prison Farm on the island state of Tamsania on Tuesday morning, a prison spokesman told Reuters.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio said Randell was granted parole by the state parole board after it had taken into account a range of considerations including the views of victims, their families and Randell's behaviour in jail.

He will remain on parole until August next year, ABC said.

Randell, who officiated in 36 tests, was sentenced in August 1999 after being convicted on 15 counts of indecent assault when he was a teacher at a school in the Tasmanian town of Burnie between 1981 and 1982.

The court heard Randell befriended the nine schoolgirls and their families, using a mixture of trust and fear to manipulate them. The girls were aged between 10 and 12 at the time.

Randell visited some of the homes of some of the girls on the pretence of establishing a parent-teacher relationship but then molested the girls in their bedrooms, the court was told. 

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