Every parent’s worst nightmare: Schoolboy abducted and abused in Bulwell town centre

Nottingham Crown Court was shown CCTV of Tony Spilsbury in a grey baseball cap changing course after spotting the boy, talking to him for a few moments and then walking off with him, at 10am on July 11.

Matt Hayes, prosecuting, said Spilsbury approached him in the street and said, "I remember you," before claiming the boy helped him some years ago.

"Do you want to help me with some pipes?" he asked.

"Follow me and I'll take you to my van."

Spilsbury asked if he wanted some food from Greggs and, once they were inside the van, gave the boy a chocolate bar.

"As he began driving away he began wondering where the defendant was taking him," said Mr Hayes.

Spilsbury drove him to a car park near Bulwell Academy, where he asked him to kiss and cuddle him, but the boy declined.

"He kissed him on the cheeks and then touched his private parts and asked him to touch his penis," said Mr Hayes.

The boy refused and asked to be taken back to his mum.

Spilsbury dropped him off around 30 minutes after approaching him.

The boy said the defendant asked him which school he went to and his home address, and said “the next time he was in Bulwell he would do the same again.”

In a statement his mum said he is now withdrawn and "shut down" after the assault and “more jumpy around people he doesn't know.”

Spilsbury was arrested shortly afterwards.

He initially denied any wrongdoing and tried to blame the boy.

Spilsbury, of Fernleigh Avenue, Mapperley, Nottingham admitted the sexual assault of a boy by touching when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court, on July 14.

Daniel Church, mitigating, said Spilsbury, who has no previous convictions, accepted “he has committed a serious and deplorable offence”.

“Having to admit he has behaved in this way has had consequences between himself and his family,” he said.

“He fully accepts the prosecution case and realises he must fully confront what he did head on.”

He said Spilsbury was concerned about the impact of his conviction on his wife of 54 years and CCTV cameras have been installed at his home.

He suffers from angina and was hospitalised with chest pains while in the cells of the magistrates court.

Judge Steven Coupland told him: “What you did was every parent’s worst nightmare.

"Your actions demonstrated a degree of control that was chilling.

“It was plain he didn’t want to do what you wanted to do.

"You blamed him and denied responsibility.

"I reject that entirely.

“It was obvious he was vulnerable.

"You persuaded him to come with you by grooming behaviour.

"What you did to that boy for your own perverted sexual desires was catastrophic.”

Classing him as a dangerous, ongoing risk to other people the judge imposed an extended sentence of seven years and eight months.

Spilsbury must serve a minimum of two thirds behind bars before he is eligible for parole, and three years on licence.

A restraining order was imposed and he was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.