An urgent change to prison visiting rules was today demanded after a paedophile from York was allowed to assault a ten-year-old boy in a prison visiting room.

Stephen Carruthers, 40, formerly of Wenlock Terrace, is said to have spent 30 minutes with the boy after the serial sex offender's stepfather smuggled him in under the pretence he was Carruthers' son.

Father-of-two Carruthers was convicted on Friday at Manchester Crown Court on two charges of rape, two charges of false imprisonment, two of indecent assault on a male and one of indecency with a child at the prison.

Well known in York for molesting young boys in the 1980s, he had convictions against him in 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1991.

Included in his catalogue of shame while living in York are a serious sexual assault on a young boy and a serious sex attack on a mentally handicapped 18-year-old, for which he was jailed.

Fossway resident Ruth Locker, who remembers Carruthers from when he preyed on children in the area, said she was not surprised he had again been convicted.

"I had a young son of my own at the time, and he was never let out of the house," she said.

"Some people used to feel sorry for Carruthers, but he disgusted me and a lot of other people round here - I would look at him and shudder."

Mrs Locker added that she felt he should receive the ma ximum possible sentence.

Residents in the Fossway area raised a petition to evict him in 1987 after suspecting him of child abuse, and he was beaten up by three men who alleged he had interfered with their children when he moved to Wenlock Terrace.

He then fled to Manchester, where he was able to keep his appalling record a secret and was free to prey on other youngsters.

The terrified ten-year-old was brought into the visiting room at Strangeways Prison by Carruthers' stepfather, 79-year-old Gerald Frank. They had duped the guards into believing the boy was Carruthers' son.

The boy was asked to commit a sex act on Carruthers, but prison staff realised what was happening and stopped the visit.

Frank was convicted of indecency, and will be sentenced along with Carruthers in January.

The court in Manchester heard during the four-week trial how Carruthers raped two brothers aged nine and ten after dragging them off the street.

In one horrific sex attack, Frank held one of the boys prisoner upstairs and indecently assaulted him while the lad's frantic mother was at the front door asking Carruthers if he had seen her son.

Carruthers often won the sympathy of his victims' families by lying to them that his wife and two children had been killed in a car crash.

A spokesman for the prison officers at Strangeways denied that Carruthers and the boy had been left alone.

"The prison staff stopped the visit as soon as they realised something was wrong," he said.

A Prison Service spokesman said their swift actions when they saw the boy sitting on Carruthers' lap had prevented any further abuse.

He added that children were now vetted to check they were indeed related to prisoners before being allowed to visit.

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