Wayne Burnham 57

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A former judo coach twice previously jailed for sex offences against boys is back behind bars following a further similar conviction.

In all cases Wayne Burnham, a divorcee, was accused of giving his victims cider and allowing them to smoke, sometimes cannabis, at his home, at the time, in Langley Park, County Durham, before carrying out the offences, all committed in the early 2000s.

Burnham received a three-year prison sentence in November 2003, after admitting indecently assaulting two boys aged under 16, at Durham Crown Court.

Further allegations arose in 2015, also stemming from the early 2000s, when another victim came forward.

It led to a trial at Durham Crown Court in March 2017 at which Burnham, by then living in Erith, in Kent, was convicted of the rape and indecent assault of a boy.

He received a 12-year prison sentence and was made subject of registration as a sex offender and the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), both for life.

Having only recently been released from that sentence on licence supervision, he was back before magistrates in County Durham on January 10, this year, when he admitted a charge of indecent assault on a boy under 14.

The case was sent for sentence today (Tuesday January 7), at Durham Crown Court, where the now 56-year-old defendant received a further two-year prison sentence.

Robin Turton, prosecuting, said the offence dates from the summer of 2002, when the victim recalls being given cider and being allowed to smoke, at Burnham’s home.

On one occasion he was given so much cider that he passed out, due to heavy intoxication, and awoke to discover the defendant with his hands in his underwear fondling him.

Mr Turton said the boy recalled Burnham making light of it, trying to laugh it off by making a remark about the boy’s genitalia.

In an impact statement, read to the court by Mr Turton, the victim said he only began to realise the effect the incident had on him when he reached adulthood.

He has suffered depression and anxiety for which he has turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism.

The victim said as a boy he looked up to Burnham for allowing him to drink alcohol and smoke, both of which he had not previously done, and which he considered, “cool”, at the time.

But it led to a longer-term addiction to alcohol, from his early teenage years onwards, which he believes has affected his employment prospects, as he has been unable to hold down a job on a long-term basis.

The court was told of Burnham’s past convictions, some post-dating the offence he was answering for at today’s hearing.

Christopher Carter, in mitigation for Burnham, told the court: “This happened more than 20 years ago when the defendant was struggling with alcohol abuse and was coming out of a relationship, and coming to terms with his own sexuality.

“He served a sentence at the time for similar offences and it’s regrettable this case has come to court so late.

“But, it is understandable. He acknowledges the long-term suffering of the victim in this case.

“He was only recently released from prison for the sentence imposed in 2017 and was immediately given this date to appear before the court.”

Jailing him, Judge James Adkin told Burnham: “The aggravating feature of the case is it demonstrates this incident was not an isolated one, but part of a pattern of sexual offending where children were targeted by you for sexual gratification.”

The judge added that had he taken the case to a trial the latest sentence would have been three years.

On his eventual release, Burnham will remain subject to both the lifetime notification and SHPO requirements put in place after his 2017 conviction.