A FRAIL pensioner sexually abused a schoolboy after befriending him and allowing him to do odd jobs around his home.

Retired steelworker Frank Thomas, 71, who was given a suspended jail sentence yesterday, later told police that the pair were just "playing with each other".

He said that his victim had been a willing partner.

Teesside Crown court heard yesterday that Thomas allowed the teenager to play with toy motor cars and bikes and also do cleaning jobs at his home in Dinsdale Road, Stockton.

Prosecuting, Richard Parcell said that over the course of about a year, Thomas sexually assaulted the boy several times before the matter was reported to police.

The defendant, who admitted six counts of sexual activity with a boy between May 26 last year and May 25 this year and asked for a further ten similar charges to be taken into account, was arrested and immediately made "full and frank admissions".

However, he claimed the boy had asked him to do these things and that they had never given him any sexual gratification or pleasure.

Dan Cordey, for Thomas, who suffered from arthritis, said he had essentially led a decent life and had never been in trouble before.

He had now lost everything as a result of the charges laid against him and his step-son had turned his back on him.

Mr Cordey said: "He is deeply ashamed and is well aware of the seriousness of what he has done."

The court was told that Thomas had never behaved in this way with any other child and it was a "very strange one-off situation".

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, said he would have sent Thomas to prison if there was any risk of him re-offending.

However, the judge believed it was a "wholly isolated episode" and instead gave him a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years. Thomas has to register as a sexual offender.