A DISGRACED former scout master who sexually abused a vulnerable boy while taking him on weekend trips away has been jailed.

Kenneth Thompson, aged 73, of Monnow Way, Newport, was a scout leader when he committed the offences in the 1970s. He previously pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault.

The victim reported the incidents to police in December 2015, Newport Crown Court heard yesterday.

Matthew Roberts, prosecuting, told the court the offences took place at a farm house in Monmouthshire on two weekend trips in the summers of 1973 and 1974.

Thompson offered to take the victim away for a weekend when the first offence took place, in 1973.

The sexual abuse was repeated in a similar way during a weekend away the following summer, in 1974, it was added.

Mr Roberts, prosecuting, said the visits were not official scouting trips.

“This was a period of persistent and sustained abuse in the summer of 1973 and in the subsequent summer of 1974,” said Mr Roberts.

Thompson, of no previous convictions, was dismissed from the scouts in 1995 over concerns of him working with young boys, the court heard.

Laurence Jones, defending, said Thompson is not currently in good health.

“He accepts his best mitigation is his guilty plea,” said Mr Jones.

“He has shown difficulty in coming to terms with what he has done, but has accepted it.”

Mr Jones added that Thompson is at “low risk” of re-conviction.

Judge Daniel Williams, sentencing, said Thompson gained the trust of the victim and his mother through the scouts before taking him away.

“No doubt the victim and his mother thought it was an act of kindness. It was nothing of the kind,” he said.

He said “significant planning” was involved in the offending.

Thompson was jailed for four years. He was also disqualified from working with children and vulnerable adults.