A 75-YEAR-OLD paedophile who sexually abused a vulnerable 14-year-old boy he befriended has been jailed for four and a half years.

Bespectacled pensioner Matthew Wiles abused the teenager at his home over a three-month period, but denied paying the boy for sexual favours.

Wiles, of Central Avenue, Bracken Bank, Keighley, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual activity with a child and was imprisoned at Bradford Crown Court today.

The court heard that Wiles was given a three-year prison sentence in 1993 for historic sexual offences against a male under 16.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told him: "It is clear you have urges and desires within you."

He said that, even at his late stage of life, the defendant had shown an unwillingness or defiance to subdue his urges.

The judge said: "You befriended the boy. You took the opportunity, once you had created it, to groom him and indulge in escalating sexual abuse.

"He is probably a vulnerable young man. You abused somebody whose trust you secured and you were trusted to be with him. The disparity of age - 61 years - is truly excessive. You are an older man. It was sadly no bar to your committing these offences. You are not particularly well, but that did not bar you from abusing this boy."

Prosecutor Sophie Drake said the defendant had pleaded guilty on the basis that he did not pay the boy, but the Crown could not accept there was no payment. She said the offences first came to light when the complainant told a friend, who reported it to his mother.

The offences took place between last November and this February and began after the boy carried a bag to the defendant's house after Wiles had injured his arm.

The defendant began sending notes to the boy asking him to do jobs for him. He indecently touched him and performed different sexual acts on several occasions at the defendant's house. He told the boy not to tell anyone he was going to his house.

Wiles's solicitor advocate, Arshad Mahmood, said his client accepted what he did was wrong and had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

Judge Durham Hall imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order without limit of time and ordered Wiles to register as a sex offender for life.

PC Josie McDonnell, of the Bradford District Safeguarding Unit, said: "We would like to thank Wiles' victim for coming forward and hope this will give him some closure.

"It is possible there may be other victims out there, and we would urge them or anyone else who has been the victim of sexual abuse, to contact the Bradford Safeguarding Unit and speak to our specially-trained officers.

"All reports will be investigated sensitively and thoroughly."