'Sex predator coach abused my karate dream'

Stuart Amos said being trained by Sherry had been his lifelong dream before he was abused

A man who was sexually assaulted by his karate master said it had been his "lifelong dream" to train with him.

Stuart Amos, now 31, moved to Liverpool in 2011 to learn under ninth dan black belt Andrew Sherry.

But Sherry sexually abused him and was this week jailed for two years at Liverpool Crown Court for his crimes against him and another, younger boy.

Mr Amos said Sherry, now 80, had manipulated him and "abused his dream".

He had relocated from Bedfordshire to Liverpool to train at Red Triangle karate club in Everton.

Mr Amos, who waived his anonymity as a victim of a sexual offence to speak out, said: "When I met Andrew Sherry it was a lifelong dream to come to Liverpool to train with him and he abused that dream to get what he wanted, " he said.

"It was a horrific time. I was groomed for a long period and manipulated into silence and sexually assaulted by someone who was in a great position of trust.

"He was my teacher - I believed he was my friend.

"In my first statement to police, one of the words I gave was that it felt 'practiced'."

'Manipulation'

Sherry, of Mann Island in Liverpool, was convicted in March of indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16 in the mid-1980s, and of four counts of sexual assault on an older teenager in 2011 or 2012.

His trial heard the karate master, who was chief instructor for the Karate Union of Great Britain, claimed the allegations had been the result of a conspiracy by other practitioners who wanted to "overthrow their leader".

Sentencing judge David Swinnerton told him his actions had been "an abuse of trust".

Mr Amos said Sherry "knew exactly what he was doing, he knew exactly what he was saying".

"He referred a lot to behavioural psychology, which he said was an interest of his," he said.

"He bought me a book once on behavioural psychology, which had a long chapter on manipulation."

He said Sherry had "his choice of children from all over the country".

"He was the chief instructor, he was the chief examiner and he was the squad coach," he said.

"He had the pick of the litter, for want of a better word."

Mr Amos said the investigation had been an "uphill battle" and had taken its toll on him.

"I have been shunned by my old friends who he turned against me," he said.

"I have had to deal with a lot of personal abuse from people I thought were my friends."

He added that the case had brought him closure, although it would have been better if Sherry had been handed a longer sentence.

"I always said if he got to trial I would have my day in court and stand there and look him in the eye," he said.

"I was able to do that."