A TRAINSPOTTING paedophile who abused an 11-year-old boy he had met at York Station has been jailed for eight years.

Richard Biddick, now 76, drugged the boy by lacing his hot chocolate then abused him as he slept, York Crown Court heard.

The offences happened in the late 1970s and the court heard the victim had suffered ever since. Biddick, a former teacher and scoutmaster, went on to gather thousands of indecent images of children.

Talking about the six-month abuse of the boy Biddick had met in York, the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC said: "Goodness only knows what you did to him during the dead of night. Whatever you did to him, he has tried to block out, but it has had the most profound effect of him for the rest of his life."

York Press:

Biddick met the boy at York Station and went on to abuse him

He jailed him for eight years and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order and the sex offenders' register for life.

In a victim impact statement the younger boy told the judge: "Something has been taken away from me - my innocence."

The abuse had turned him from a "happy go-lucky" child to an aggressive person, affected his adult relationships and left him feeling useless and worthless.

Martin Sharpe prosecuting, said the younger boy was a keen trainspotter. Biddick saw him on York Railway Station, befriended him and persuaded his parents to let him take him on trainspotting trips and stay overnight at a bed and breakfast place with him twice a month for half a year.

On the night stays, he gave the boy laced hot chocolate with a bitter almond aftertaste that left him feeling groggy and hungover the next morning. When he awoke the boy realised something had happened to him sexually. The abuse ended when the boy gave up trainspotting.

Years after the abuse, Biddick, a former teacher and scoutmaster, accumulated 10,000 indecent images of children. He moved from North Yorkshire to Croydon, London, where despite a court order banning him from being alone with children, he befriended a 14-year-old trainspotter.

Biddick pleaded guilty to two indecent assaults of the 11-year-old/, breaching a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) and failure to comply with the sex offenders register, both in 2014.

He took him on railway trips around south London but the boy realised something was wrong and stopped meeting him. Biddick also concealed bank accounts from police against the sex offender register regulations.

In 2002, he was convicted of having 10,000 indecent images of children and in 2013 was made subject to a SOPO which banned him from being alone with children.

For Biddick, David Camidge said he claimed he had not been grooming the 14-year-old boy for sex, but the judge said he had.

Biddick felt "very sorry" for the 11-year-old, now a man, and the effect the crimes had on him. Biddick has ongoing health problems, the court was told.