Pervert who lured five-year-old Wakefield boy with computer games jailed nearly 40 years later
A pensioner who spent years sexually abusing a young boy has been jailed nearly 40 years after his sickening crimes began.
John Greenwood, who is now 68, was found guilty after a trial of six counts of indecent assault on the youngster between the mid 1980s and the early 1990s.
He was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week for six years.
It was heard that Greenwood was in his late 20s when he began to abuse the boy. It started when the child was five and carried on until he was around 11.
There were elements of grooming behaviour, like leaving money for the boy and luring him to his home so the youngster could borrow the latest computer games that Greenwood had bought.
Further details cannot be disclosed to help protect the identity of the boy, who is now in his 40s.
In a victim impact statement, read to the court by prosecutor Abigail Langford, the man said he was filled with self hatred and plagued by “thoughts of suicide”.
He added: “My childhood innocence was taken from me.
“My memories are overshadowed by the abuse. I do not recall any happy days. I suffered in silence and feared not being believed.”
There were also allegations that Greenwood had abused another boy in Spain, but the Spanish authorities “were not interested”.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar surmised that had they acted, the Wakefield boy may have been saved from the abuse.
Mitigating for Greenwood, Glenn Parsons told the court: “It’s a day of reckoning for him, having to answer to conduct he indulged in some 30 years ago.
“Now he must pay the price. It will have to be custody, at 68 that’s a prospect he dreads.”
Judge Khokhar told Greenwood that his behaviour had a “devastating impact” on his victim and told him: “I’m afraid there’s no other alternative to a custodial sentence.”
He put Greenwood, of Broach Lane, Kellington, near Eggborough, on the sex offender register for life and gave him a life-long sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).