AN UNDERTAKER who abused boys in public toilets as well as his own funeral parlour is tonight starting a 20-year prison sentence.

Funeral director Gerald Martin targeted vulnerable children in the late 1970s, 1980s and mid 1990s.

The married church-goer's sordid double-life emerged during a trial when it was revealed that his wife had no idea about his double life.

One of the youngsters was assaulted at a Boys Brigade meeting, where Martin volunteered, after visiting with an interest in joining the organisation.

Two of the victims - now middle-aged men - read moving statements out in court which described the devastating impact Martin’s offending had on their lives.

The Northern Echo:

Predatory paedophile Gerald Martin was a respectable churchgoer who lived a double live - preying on young boys

Neither could remember most of their childhoods, both had turned to alcohol and suffered problems in their relationships.

One broke down as he told Teesside Crown Court: “The abuse has robbed me of happiness, a stable mental mind and everything.”

Martin, 66, of Valley Close, Hartlepool, was found guilty by a jury of 14 charges of indecent assault and offences which would today be classified as rape and attempted rape.

Jailing him for 20 years, Judge Simon Phillips, QC, said Martin had used his profession to carry out the despicable acts, and was a “persistent, predatory paedophile to boys in their early teenage years”.

One of the victims told the court that his only memory of his childhood years is his visits to Ayresome Park football ground in Middlesbrough.

“I used to get on my bike with 50p in my pocket to buy football programmes,” he said. “My only happy memories were if it involves Middlesbrough Football Club. A lot of my childhood I can’t remember. There’s nothing. It’s like it has stolen my childhood.”

Other victims had self-harmed; one had attempted suicide eight times and as recently as September.

His victims were aged between 12 and 15 when they were abused by Martin at his funeral parlour in Park Road, or at public toilets in the town, the court heard.

Jamie Hill, QC, mitigating, told Judge Phillips that Martin still denied the crimes, and asked that his age and the age of the offences to be taken into account.

The judge said he had read character references about Martin relating to his professional work, but added: “As an individual, you were manipulative, deceitful and ultimately uncaring and unremorseful as to the grave harm you have caused to others.”

He added of the victims: “All were children, all were vulnerable and naive and all were damaged irreparably by the sexual depravity that you exercised upon them.”

Speaking afterwards, Detective Sergeant Matt Hollingsworth said: “I hope it demonstrates to other victims of sexual abuse that if you come forward you will be taken seriously, you will be believed.

“Gerald Martin was a prominent figure in Hartlepool and clearly thought he was above the law.

"I hope these convictions serve as a warning to others who may have committed similar despicable acts that they will never be safe from prosecution.

“These victims have not only suffered horrendously at the hands of Gerald Martin at the time of their abuse, but they are still suffering and will no doubt go on to remember those events for a long time to come and maybe for the rest of their lives, and to some of them this has come at a great personal cost."