A south London football coach and youth worker has been jailed for nine years after being found guilty of sexually abusing boys.
David Hughes, 66, was convicted at Croydon Crown Court of 14 non-recent sexual offences against four boys aged between eight and 15.
The volunteer coach groomed children in his care with gifts of football kits and cinema trips before assaulting them at youth clubs in New Addington between 1988 and 1995, the court heard.
When Hughes was arrested on 21 December 2018 officers found him carrying a black holdall with children’s underwear inside.
Similar items of clothing were found during a search of his New Addington address. He was charged in February 2020.
Hughes was found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault on three boys aged eight to 13 between 1988 and 1995.
He was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a boy aged 13 to 15 and two counts of causing the same boy aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity in 2017 and 2018, independently of his employment.
On Thursday Hughes was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment plus a one-year extended sentence which will be managed by probation. He was also handed a lifetime stringent Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Detective Constable Pete Brewster, from Central Specialist Crime, said: "In committing these offences Hughes demonstrated premeditated, predatory behaviour spanning almost 30 years.
"Hughes worked as a youth worker and children’s football coach in New Addington throughout the 1980s and 1990s, seeking employment and other opportunities that granted him access to children. He should have been someone the children, and their families, could trust. Hughes betrayed this trust, abusing vulnerable children who described feeling unable, ashamed and embarrassed to tell anyone what he had done to them.
"Those who suffered at the hands of Hughes in the 1990s describe how his offending continues to affect them today and say their reports to police in 2018 and 2019 were an important step in 'moving on' with their lives.
"It is only through the bravery of all of the victims in this case to report the abuse they suffered and support the police investigation that Hughes has been convicted of these offences.
"If you have been the victim of abuse, no matter how long ago, please report it to police so we can help you."
