Gordon Hunter 78

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A FORMER village bobby has been found guilty of sexually abusing two teenage boys while working for Hamp-shire police.

Gordon Hunter showed no emotion as jurors convicted him on all 14 charges he faced, which included gross indecency with a child and attempted buggery.

As the guilty verdicts were read out, one woman in the public gallery, believed to be a member of one of the victims’ families, said: “Yes.”

The court heard that Hunter and his wife, Gill, had tried to commit suicide just days ago.

Winchester Crown Court was told that the couple, who had been married for 40 years, made the attempt at their home in Dene Way, Ashurst, on Thursday. It is understood paramedics took the couple to hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Hunter was absent from court on Friday and Monday but was in court yesterday to hear the unanimous guilty verdicts read out after the jury had deliberated for six-and-a-half hours.

Judge Andrew Barnett lifted a court order banning publication of the joint suicide bid following the verdict.

Hunter’s son, brother-in-law and friends were in the public gallery to hear the verdicts read out. Mrs Hunter, who had been present during the trial, was absent for the sentencing but has since been released from hospital.

Judge Andrew Barnett remanded Hunter in custody for his own safety until he is sentenced next month.

He told him: “You have been convicted by the jury of 14 extremely serious offences against young teenage boys.

“Be under no illusion that the inevitable sentence is one of imprisonment and you must prepare yourself for that.

“Bearing in mind your safety after you and your wife were involved in a suicide attempt I have to consider your well-being and I have to remand you in custody.”

During the five-day trial the court heard how Hunter had abused the boys in separate areas of the county between 1987 and 1998.

It was while working as a village policeman that Hunter abused the first boy, inviting him into his home to take part in a variety of sex acts.

The offences began with a boy, who was 11 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons, when Hunter was the village policeman in Whitchurch in the north of the county between 1983 and 1992.

The court heard how many of the offences took place at Hunter’s family home, some in his marital bed.

Jurors were told that Hunter then moved to Ashurst in the New Forest in 1992 and in 1995 began to target another boy, who also cannot be named for legal reasons.

Hunter retired from Hampshire police as a police constable in 2002 but continued in a variety of support staff roles including a detention officer in Eastleigh.

He retired from a support staff role at Lyndhurst at the beginning of October 2009 before being arrested later that month. The investigation has been led by officers from Hampshire Constabulary’s professional standards department.

Hunter, who had denied all the charges, was put on the sex offender’s register.