January 2021

Paedophile pensioner jailed for sex assaults on teenage boy in Somerset

A pensioner has been jailed for a series of sexual assaults on a teenage boy in Somerset.

Former teacher James Deboyer, 70, formerly of Frome but now of Braeside Park, Dobwalls, Cornwall, was found guilty at Taunton Crown Court of ten offences of indecent assault dating back more than three decades.

On Friday, he was sentenced to nine years in prison at Exeter Crown Court.

During the trial, the victim said he was aged between 13 and 15 and at school in Somerset when he was befriended and then abused by Deboyer.

The court was told Deboyer also touched the teenager during a school trip and made him lie about this age so he could buy him with drinks at pubs.

The former teacher was a large and dominant figure who exerted power and control over the teenager through fear which has persisted throughout his life, the court heard.

The victim read a moving personal statement which set out the devastating effects the assaults had on him.

He said the mental torture he had endured reliving the events has left him emotionally scarred.

“It has left me angry and unable to trust people, especially men,” he said.

The trial was told that Deboyer, a former teacher and tattoo shop owner with a keen interest in bodybuilding, was aged in his 40s when the offences were committed. He told his victim at the time that nobody would believe him if he revealed what had happened.

The offences came to light many years later when the defendant told police. The publicity around disgraced child sex offender Jimmy Savile helped to convince the victim to reveal what happened, the trial was told.

Deboyer told the jury there had never been any sexual contact between the pair. It was said that his plans to retire with his wife to France would not now be possible.

Judge Timothy Rose told Deboyer: “It was quite obvious to me the evidence against you was clear and compelling. The offences in question all amount to indecent assaults perpetrated by you against a single victim.

They have blighted his emotional and mental well-being.”

Deboyer was made subject to the Sex Offender Register for an indefinite period.