A PENSIONER on trial for abusing a schoolboy has a conviction from two years ago for sexual offences against two others, a jury was told yesterday (Tuesday, September 20).

Robert Lambie's latest accuser went to police after he was told in a telephone chat with his mother that he had been in court for the other matters.

Until then, he had confided only in his partner and a close friend about what happened to him as a child more than two decades ago.

A jury at Teesside Crown Court heard how Lambie, who lived in North Yorkshire at the time, took advantage of the teenager's vulnerability and naivety to abuse him, and once said: "I wish you were 16."

The white-haired 79-year-old denies eight charges of indecent assault and two serious sexual offences, and faces a trial which is expected to end tomorrow.

He told the jury yesterday that he "holds his hands up" to the crimes he admitted in August 2014, but there is no truth "in any way, shape or form" to the fresh claims.

Asked by his barrister, Stephen Constantine, if he was guilty, he replied: "I am not. I realise that my previous convictions put me in a very vulnerable position."

Frail-looking Lambie, formerly from Thirsk, was wearing blue jeans, training shoes and a cream-coloured jumper in the witness box, and spoke politely.

He was cross-examined at length by prosecutor Paul Newcombe, who had told the jury that the alleged victim was "haunted until he could keep the secret no more".

Lambie described his molesting of the two separate boys as "misplaced affection" and said: "I overstepped the boundary of friendship, and I accept that."

He told how he had dozens of children as piano pupils, had an interest in classic cars and was an amateur photographer who specialised in weddings.

He denied having an interest in boys, described himself as "entirely heterosexual", said he had been accepted as a Samaritan, and added: "People look at me as someone who can help."

Mr Newcombe put to him: "You molested two other boys, that's not helping them, it's warping them, isn't it? Do you see your behaviour is harmful,not helpful.

"Would you not accept you have a fundamental flaw in your character, and you are blind to that flaw?"

Lambie answered: "I have always held my hands up to what I did around the mid-80s, but that does not mean, therefore, I must have made the same mistake in the 90s because I did not."

He told the prosecutor directly: "You are entitled to make these sort of remarks, and I have to be careful to be polite to you, but I'm not finding it easy, Mr Newcombe."

The trial continues.