VICTIMS of a paedophile former headteacher and heir to the Greggs bakery empire are set to see justice, 20 years after he twice walked free from court over child sex charges.

Colin Gregg, who taught at Durham School, led a North-East children’s charity and set up the North-East Children’s Cancer Run, “exploited his position in society to abuse young boys” and has been told he faces an inevitable jail sentence.

The 75-year-old grandfather, who retired as a non-executive director of the bakery in 2001 after 30 years in the role, was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault against four boys aged between 11 and 14.

He had denied the charges, claiming he was the victim of a “witch hunt”, but showed no emotion when a jury at Leeds Crown Court found him guilty of abuse from the early 1960s to the 1990s. Judge Robin Mairs told Gregg: “These are serious matters and a custodial sentence is inevitable.”

As Gregg, who spearheaded a £12m appeal to build a child health unit at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary and won international accolades for his charity work, left the court under an umbrella, he was asked if he would apologise to his victims, but said nothing.

When he was first charged with child sex offences in 1996, he issued statement saying he was “deeply shocked”.

It read: “Mr Gregg is a fervent believer in the fairness of the British justice system and is confident that it will find him innocent of this unfounded charge.”

The trial at Leeds Crown Court was a retrial after a jury in Newcastle last year failed to reach verdicts.

In 1997, Gregg, a father-of-three, was acquitted by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court of four counts of indecent assault on a schoolboy, who alleged the then highly-respected fundraiser had molested him in a sauna at his home.

Fourteen months later, the former Newcastle social worker and headteacher at The King’s School Junior School, in Tynemouth, walked free from court again after five charges of indecent assault on young boys - dating back to the 1960s - were dropped. A judge ruled he could not have a fair trial due to difficulties finding witnesses and of them recollecting events from the 1960s. The boys had alleged Gregg had abused them in his car or in a swimming pool. Three of the four did not know each other.

After Gregg’s conviction, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “He exploited his position in society to abuse young boys for his own sexual gratification. I’d like to praise the bravery of the victims. It is thanks largely to their evidence the court has found Colin Gregg guilty of the charges, for which he had evaded justice for a considerable number of years.”

An NSPCC spokesman added: “Gregg probably thought he got away with these crimes but this case is proof that victims of abuse will be listened to, no matter how much time has passed.”

Gregg, of Gosforth, will be sentenced on March 30.