DISGRACED church minister Neville Husband is behind bars after being convicted of sexually abusing five young inmates while he worked as a prison officer.

Husband, 65, of Shotley Bridge, used his position at a detention centre to prey on his vulnerable victims.

He showed no emotion on Friday as Judge Esmond Faulks jailed him for eight years and told him: "The victims were young trainees whom you chose to work for you in your kitchen so you could abuse them.

"Their fear of you caused them to submit to your unwelcome attentions, and this was in my judgement a gross breach of trust.

"You and others like you helped cause their damaged personalities.

"Up until now, they never thought anyone would believe them."

The attacks happened at Medomsley Detention Centre in Consett, in the 1970s and 80s where Husband spent 17 of his 27 years with the prison service.

He had denied abusing six inmates aged between 16 and 19, but was found guilty by a jury of ten charges of indecent assault and one of buggery, relating to five boys. The jury cleared him of two further indecent assaults, while the judge had directed them to find him not guilty on three more.

Kevin Young, 43, a witness who has waived his right to anonymity, told the court he would plead with his tormentor to stop the repeated attacks, but was warned he could be found hanging in his cell.

It has emerged that Husband, who became a United Reformed Church minister in charge of two churches in Gateshead, had at least two previous brushes with the law - but slipped through the net both times.

While training as a prison officer in the 1960s, Husband was involved in the importation of gay porn from Scandinavia, but no charges were brought after he claimed he had obtained the material for research.

Then, in 1999, he was charged after police obtained a mailing list from paedophile organisations. Husband, who had bought two videos, was due to appear before Derwentside magistrates. But the case collapsed when an expert witness failed to turn up.

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