A CONVICTED paedophile who brushed off his past crimes against boys as "misplaced affection" was yesterday jailed for nine years for molesting and corrupting another young lad.

Former choirmaster and music teacher Robert Lambie befriended the teenager and exploited him when he went to him for advice.

Last night, the victim – in court to see the predator found guilty – said: "This creature violated my whole world and conditioned my sexual preferences to suit himself."

Lambie, now 79, secretly bought the youngster Christmas presents when he abused him in the 1990s, a court heard.

He denied eight charges of indecent assault, but was found guilty after a jury deliberated for just 80 minutes. He was cleared of two more serious sexual charges.

Judge Sean Morris, at Teesside Crown Court, told the pervert: "Had you been the Christian you professed to be before this jury, you would have admitted these offences."

Lambie was jailed for six years in 2014 for grooming and fondling two schoolboys in the 1980s when he lived in Darlington. He admitted the offences.

The keen photographer treated his victims to days out and made them feel special before persuading them to let him picture them in their underwear, a judge heard.

He was told: "You gained a high degree of respect and trust within the church, but that was used as a cloak behind which you would gain the confidence of those boys."

After the case two years ago, another victim came forward and told police he had been groomed by Lambie before he was abused and shown cross-dressing photos and films.

At a trial this week, Lambie, who had also been clerk to the chapter at Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire, said he is "entirely heterosexual" with no sexual interest in children.

He said he had simply "overstepped the boundaries of friendship" when he abused the boys in the 1980s, but that did not mean he had done it again a decade later.

But the jury of seven women and five men took little time to see through the lies and accept what the judge said later was "the most overwhelming evidence".

He told Lambie he had carried out a "monstrous catalogue of offending" which had left his loner victim – now an adult – struggling to cope with life and his feelings.