Ashbourne man jailed after abusing 13-year-old boy
His victim has been speaking about his ordeal
41-year-old Mark Gadsby, of Cross Side in Ashbourne, singled out his victim when he used to drive a school bus between 2000 and 2003.
He started grooming him by bombarding him with text messages while he was attending school, always wanting to meet up.
Gadsby, who was in his 20s at the time of the attacks, would go on to exploit his position of trust by giving lifts in his Ford Fiesta Zetec Sport and on the service bus he drove, eventually taking his vulnerable victim to a country lane in Staffordshire and forcing him to perform sexual acts on several occasions.
This and other activity left the victim physically in pain for weeks afterwards, but Gadsby would continue to attack the boy regardless of the impact he was having on him.
“I do get upset about it still and I just think why did he need to do that?”, the victim said in a personal statement.
Appearing at Derby Crown Court, Gadsby admitted the charges of one count of buggery, six counts of gross indecency with a boy under sixteen and two indecent images offences after a number of images of children were found on his mobile phone.
Gadsby was jailed for a total of six years, given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
Detective Constable Matthew Charlesworth led the investigation and said:
“Whilst a sentence of six years pales into insignificance compared with the years of trauma the victim has had to live with as a result of Gadsby’s predatory behaviour, we hope that this result will go some way to allowing the victim closure and being able to put the ordeal behind him.
"The victim has been extremely brave, providing detailed accounts to the police and patiently waiting for the investigation and subsequent court proceedings to be finalised. As a result of the victim reporting these offences, which were clearly difficult for him to talk about, a sexual offender is now in prison, protecting children and the wider public from harm”.