Child groomer who 'completely changed life' of victim finally jailed decades on

BRAVE VICTIM HELPED TRACK HIM DOWN AFTER SEEING DETAILS OF ANOTHER INVESTIGATION IN DIFFERENT AREA

- By MARK NAYLOR

JUSTICE finally caught up with a perverted sexual predator - and his many years of freedom came to an abrupt end - when determined amateur detective work by an eagle-eyed victim led to the last pieces of a jigsaw being put into place.

The scent suddenly went cold on sexual abuser Robert Carter after the victim first told the police about what happened to him. There was no date of birth on record to allow the police to trace Carter but a crucial breakthrough came when the tenacious victim spotted details of another investigation into Carter in a different county and asked for the original police inquiries to be reopened, Hull Crown Court heard.

Carter, 70, of Goole, admitted four offences of indecent assault, one of another serious sexual offence, three of making indecent images of children and another offence possessing prohibited images of children. He pleaded guilty on the day of a scheduled trial.

Deborah Smithies, prosecuting, said that, in the late 1970s, when Carter was in his 20s, he was employed as a support worker at an East Yorkshire school. He “formed an attraction” to one of the boys there and “acted on it”.

Carter would get into bed with the lad and “at first, all that would happen would be cuddling,” said Miss Smithies.

After some weeks, it progressed to touching the boy and sexual behaviour. Carter had a flat and sometimes he spent the night with the boy there.