Former Devon school groundsman jailed for sexual abuse

Peter Weyman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to seven counts of indecent assault on a boy under 16

A former public school groundsman has been jailed for 17 years for abusing two boys more than 20 years ago.

Peter Weyman worked as a handyman at Chelfham Mill School in Devon, where he preyed on a 12-year-old pupil.

Weyman groomed him with cigarettes, alcohol and gifts, Exeter Crown Court heard.

The 67-year-old, of Cleveland Close in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, admitted seven offences of indecency against one victim and four against the other.

He moved to Devon from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where he had also abused a child over more than two years.

The abuse of the first child took place in the 1980s and of the second child in the 1990s.

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Sentencing, Judge Geoffrey Mercer said the sentence reflected the fact that one of the assaults would now be classified as rape.

He told Weyman: "You knew both boys to be vulnerable and in need of care and support and you sexually abused both of them."

Weyman was jailed for 12 years for the offences committed in South Yorkshire and a further five years for those in Barnstaple

Det Con Richard Howe, from South Yorkshire Police said: "Weyman used bribes to overpower the victim [in Rotherham], telling him he would buy him toys and things he wanted, abusing the trust he had gained from the victim for his own evil purposes.

"The abuse Weyman subjected him to was absolutely horrific, so horrific in fact that the victim was nearly physically sick when recalling what had happened.

"I'd like to praise him for the courage he has shown throughout this entire process and I'm pleased that Weyman pleaded guilty, meaning the victim was spared the ordeal of a trial."

He was put on the sex offenders' register for life and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order, which restricts any future contact with children.