Description
A paedophile molested a "lost" and vulnerable boy who was in care because he had already been sexually abused.
Serial sex offender Alan Healey has multiple convictions involving exposing himself in front of children in public.
The 53-year-old, of Upper Pitt Street in Liverpool city centre, was last jailed after following a boy onto a bus.
But it has now emerged he targeted his first victim - aged just nine - when he was 17 and 18 in the late 1980s.
Judge David Swinnerton said: "You made things worse for him at a time when you had fooled him into thinking you would help him and make things better."
The pervert denied five counts of indecent assault, but was found guilty after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Judge Swinnerton said he attacked the "particularly vulnerable" boy at a children's home in south Liverpool, where Healey was himself living at the time.
The judge said: "You kissed him when you were 17. That kissing happened on a number of occasions. It was kissing when you put your tongue into his mouth, when you encouraged him to do the same to you.
"That took place in your bedroom in the children's home where you were living and he was visiting... He lived in a children's home, a different one down the road...
"You took advantage of him being there to befriend him, to groom him, to give him gifts, to form that relationship with him, and then to sexually assault him."
The judge said the abuse progressed to Healey putting his hand down the boy's trousers and touching his penis over his boxer shorts.
The victim told police he had already been sexually abused by two men before he went into care and was attacked by Healey, and that he was also molested by another man afterwards in a foster home.
Peter Killen, defending, said: "It's right to say his extremely traumatic childhood was not entirely down to Mr Healey, but Mr Healey simply did of course exacerbate the situation."
Judge Swinnerton told Healey: "It is impossible to extract the damage you caused him, physically, mentally, from the damage he has had from other sources, because he had a very difficult and disturbed childhood. As did you, that is why you were both in the care system.
"But at a time when he was a lost nine-year-old boy, looking for comfort and assistance, that enabled you to groom him because under the pretence of offering him friendship, comfort, being an adult person experienced in the care system, who could help him because he was having issues with being bullied and so on, you used that position as a chance to abuse him."
Mr Killen said Healey was himself physically and sexually abused in his childhood.
Judge Swinnerton accepted "no doubt" Healey had also been "damaged" by this.
However, he told Healey: "You perpetuated that, you repeated it against someone else, and you damaged him."
The judge said the abuse had a "devastating" impact, which was outlined in a victim impact statement, read by Lee Bonner, prosecuting.
The now adult man said he was "completely taken in" by Healey because the predator showed him the attention he was lacking in his life at the time.
The victim said he believed the abuse was a "major contributor" to him later turning to illegal drugs, adding: "I was so angry with Mr Healey and the world around me."
The man said he was previously prescribed antidepressants and was again after a "relapse" ahead of the trial, though the verdicts were "a massive weight lifted off my shoulders" because "at last people have believed me".
Healey was convicted of indecent exposure to boys on five occasions in 1996; of gross indecency with a child in 1997; of indecent exposure again in 1999; and then of inciting two boys to engage in sexual activity in 2010.
The court heard at that time he was working as a car park attendant at a sports centre.
He persuaded the two boys to give him their phone numbers, then sent texts inciting them to take part in sexual activity with him, in breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
In May 2017 he was jailed for 21 months after following a 14-year-old schoolboy onto a bus and pleasuring himself while asking the child's name.
Mr Killen told the court his client had made "progress" since then, hadn't committed any new offences, and under the care of a psychologist was motivated to change.
He said: "They had been progressing to a particular type of therapy, which it was hoped would help Mr Healey address his own childhood trauma, that being seen as the pathway to reducing risk in this case."
Urging the judge to spare him jail, he said that progress would be halted if he was jailed and added: "The defendant's risk is reducing."
However, Judge Swinnerton said he was concerned by Healey's "remarkable lack of insight", despite work done with him over three decades.
He said when Healey was interviewed about the victim he abused in the 1980s, he told police: "I'm not like that, I wouldn't do that."
Judge Swinnerton said: "The jury heard about some of your previous convictions and I'm afraid you are like that, Mr Healey, in the sense you are a sexual offender against boys.
"It troubles me that you lack insight because you told the jury 'I'm not sexually interested in boys, I do not know why I behave in that way'.
"But you clearly are and were sexually interested in boys."
Judge Swinnerton jailed Healey for four years.
He told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register and comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life.