A RETIRED teacher has been convicted of sexually assaulting two boys in the 1970s following a trial.

Gareth Rogers, 77, of Commercial Road, Newport, who taught history at the city’s Caerleon Comprehensive School, was found guilty by a jury of six charges.

They were one count of a serious sexual assault and five of indecent assault.

The trial at Newport Crown Court heard how the defendant was nicknamed ‘Randy Rogers’ by pupils because of his behaviour.

Jurors were told that girls at Caerleon Comprehensive School had tried to raise a petition against him over claims he enjoyed looking up their skirts as they walked up and down a stairwell.

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Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, revealed to them during the trial that Rogers was a convicted paedophile but those convictions post-dated the offences in this case.

In 1997, he was guilty of indecently assaulting two girls under 14-years-old.

In February 2014, Rogers was convicted of indecently assaulting two boys in the 1980s and in March 2014, he was convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage girls.

He had previous convictions for 10 offences that involved six victims.

Rogers had denied the current charges against him.

The defendant has dismissed the two complainants as “liars and fantasists”.

He had claimed that they had concocted their stories about him after hearing rumours about him on Facebook.

When he was arrested by the police he had claimed he had no sexual interest in children.

After the jury came back with their unanimous guilty verdicts, Rogers’ barrister Ruth Smith told the judge: “He knows he will receive a significant custodial sentence.”

Sentence was adjourned to Friday, March 15 for the preparation of reports.

These, the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said, would only go towards the length of the defendant’s sentence and to determine “dangerousness”.

She refused to grant Rogers bail in the interim and he was remanded in custody.