A Dracula fan who wore a leather thong when he groomed and repeatedly sexually abused a young boy is facing jail.
Andrew Smith, 69, from Hull, targeted and abused the boy, who lived in the same area, during the 1970s.
The boy did not feel that he could tell anyone at the time but he eventually revealed what had happened to him many years later and Smith was arrested.
The depraved pensioner made the boy feel like he was being treated as an adult and that he was his ‘mate’, before he began sexually abusing him.
Smith was a fan of Dracula, played in films at the time by Christopher Lee, and liked horror stories and films and even had fake blood and makeup, Hull Crown Court heard.
Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said: ‘He had all these weird and wonderful things in his bedroom’. The boy thought this was ‘quite cool’ and ‘didn’t realise the defendant’s true intentions’.
Smith had two suitcases full of pornography he took out the books and magazines. He read sexual stories to the boy and showed him leather thongs that were in on of his suitcases.
‘The defendant was pushing the boundaries slightly further each time to get him accustomed to what would gradually become more extreme behaviour as time progressed,’ said Mr Robinson.
On one occasion, the two of them were in the bedroom reading pornography when the defendant disappeared and came back wearing one of the thongs, telling the boy: ‘Oh, look what I have got.’
He then changed back into his normal clothes but the ‘grooming behaviour escalated further’ and the sexual abuse began soon after.
Smith gave the boy another thong, still in the packaging, to put on and committed sexual acts in front of him.
‘This type of behaviour happened more than once,’ said Mr Robinson. Smith would get the boy to read stories while he committed sexual acts, it was claimed.
Smith continued to sexually abuse the boy multiple times on different occasions.
Smith denied eight sexual offences, including four offences of indecent assault and two of indecency with a child, but was convicted by a jury of six them after a trial.
Four of the offences were by majority verdicts of 11 to one and the other was by a majority of 10 to two. One conviction for indecent assault was by a unanimous verdict. Two verdicts of not guilty were returned on the direction of the judge.
Smith claimed that he barely knew the boy at the time and he denied that anything sexual took place or that he sexually abused him. He admitted using pornography, including Mayfair magazine, and that he had thongs, or ‘pouches’, as he called them.
Judge Mark Bury told Smith: ‘You must understand that, despite your good character since these events and the fact that you are now an elderly man in some physical infirmity, the likelihood is that you will have to go to prison for these offences.’
Judge Bury said that it was not unusual for cases such as this to involve offences that went back many years. ‘Victims try their best to get past it but they can’t and eventually it tumbles out,’ said Judge Bury.
‘Victims can’t get over it. People who commit these sorts of offences, their chickens often come home to roost. Sometimes it’s quickly. In other cases, it’s further down the line.’
Sentencing was adjourned for reports, including medical reports if needed, and Smith was allowed bail until September 13. He will have to register as a sex offender on an interim basis until the next hearing.