Weatherman Fred Talbot In Scottish Cops Probe

*WARNING -GRAPHIC*

TV weatherman Fred Talbot has been jailed after he was finally exposed as an opportunistic sex offender''.

He was remanded in custody shortly after a jury found him guilty of indecently assaulting two Altrincham Grammar School for Boys pupils in the mid-1970s during his former career as a biology teacher.

Talbot, 65, had resigned in disgrace from the school in 1984 after making indecent comments to two 15-year-old pupils but hid the indiscretion when his big TV break came a year later.

He continued to cover his tracks when police first investigated him in 1992 and lied again to detectives in the current investigation when they uncovered a host of diaries which were littered with references to sexual encounters.

Talbot looked surprised as Judge Timothy Mort told him his sentence would start today but politely nodded to the jury of nine women and three men at ManchesterMinshull Street Crown Court as he left the dock.

He will be sentenced next month but is also the subject of a historical abuse inqury in Scotland.

A number of similar complaints against Talbot have been passed by police to the Procurator Fiscal about offences said to have been committed in Scotland.

The jury in Manchester heard that Talbot's modus operandi was to first establish his good guy credentials'' and then to break down the proper teacher-pupil boundaries, leaving his victims confused as made his advances.

Prosecutor Neil Usher said he was a weak and selfish man who regularly drank too much'' and this led to temptation when boys were in his care.

Both of Talbot's victims, said to be 14 or 15 at the time, were assaulted on school canal barge trips in the Cheshire area in the mid 1970s.

Each boy was told they had to share a bed with Talbot because there were not enough single bunk beds and each was then abused by him as they slept in a partitioned area.

One of them said he was drunk when he took part in a mock naked orgy'' staged by Talbot and and involving up to 10 other boys on the barge, in which some of the youngsters pretended to be girls.

Among the prosecution witnesses at the four-week trial were The Stone Roses singer Ian Brown who said Talbot gave masturbation practice as homework.

Brown said he remembered two or three biology lessons given by Talbot when he was an 11-year-old boy.

The witness said: Very early at school, I would not have been there a long time, Mr Talbot asked all the class if any of us had ever masturbated.

He went on to explain how to masturbate, how you should masturbate and the following lesson he asked who had masturbated.''

Brown said Talbot also showed a gay porn film in another class.

The court heard that Talbot's teaching career came to a swift end in May 1984 following an indecent proposal he made to two pupils at his home.

He offered his bed for the night to the 15-year-old boys and said to them: Make sure you leave room for me in the middle.''

Talbot kept quiet about why he resigned from Altrincham Grammar as his television career took off and eventually led to fame as a regular on the floating weather map in Liverpool's Albert Dock for ITV's top-rating This Morning show.

Police came knocking at his home in Bowdon, Greater Manchester, in 1992 when one of his two victims had first reported Talbot.

Talbot lied about why he quit the school and the matter was eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence.

In 2013, Talbot initially told detectives that numerous starred entries in his many diaries referred to panic attacks but later confessed to his legal team that they denoted every time he had a sexual encounter.

The Crown claimed that he also used coded euphemisms to refer to sexual activity and that some diary entries referred to the then under-age complainants and witnesses in the case.

Following the verdicts, senior investigating officer Detective Constable Chris Doggart said: Talbot was an extremely popular and well liked individual - both as a celebrity weatherman and formerly as a science teacher - who earned not only the trust and adulation of many of his peers and pupils, but also much of the nation.

Now he has been exposed as an opportunistic sex offender and that reputation is rightly in tatters.

Often fuelled by drink he seized upon opportunities that he had orchestrated to indecently assault young boys - boys who he gambled would find it impossible to speak out and tell others what he had done.

Well... one boy did speak out, and then another.''

Talbot was cleared over allegations he indecently assaulted a 15-year-old Gateshead schoolboy he met while at teacher training college between 1969 and 1970.

The weatherman claimed consensual sexual activity between the pair only began after his 16th birthday.

Talbot was also acquitted over charges he indecently assaulted two 16-year-old Altrincham Grammar pupils at his home in 1977 and 1982.

In a statement, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys said: These awful events took place over 30 years ago and naturally our thoughts go out to those former pupils who were subjected to this abuse.

We are confident that our present pupils and their parents know that the school is totally committed to ensuring the safety of our students and staff at all times and that these historic offences have no bearing on the school's outstanding reputation today.''

Talbot, who had denied 10 counts of indecent assault, will be sentenced on March 13.