A former swimming coach who visited leisure centres and swimming pools to prey on children over a 50-year period has been jailed for 12 years.

Roy Clarke, 79, a qualified Amateur Swimming Association county coach, sexually abused eight boys and girls that he met during swimming lessons between 1943 and 2003.

Sentencing Clarke, Judge Christopher Plunkett said that the pensioner - who is now wheelchair-bound from chronic ill-health, would probably die in jail.

However, he had to be punished for the "untold misery and suffering" he inflicted on his victims, the judge said at Leicester Crown Court.

"For a period of more than 50 years you preyed on young, vulnerable children – five, six, seven and eight years old and sometimes a little older.

"In a premeditated way you won their trust and the community’s trust, but you did so in a way in which you could indulge your vile desires."

He went on: "You are an old man, an ill man, a man whose health is broken, a man almost entirely dependent on others. You are vulnerable.

"But you are fully looked after and protected - your victims were not so fortunate."

The court heard that Clarke – who was a coach for the Leicester Amateur Swimming Association and taught at Aylestone Baths and Vestry Road Baths, would visit swimming clubs and leisure centres in the city in an advisory capacity.

He also taught children to swim in private lessons. Once he gained their trust he would go on to abuse them at his Aylestone home.

Nirmal Shant, prosecuting, told the court: "He gave swimming lessons as a coach, which gave him access to the children. He also worked hard to gain the children’s trust.

"Children would visit him at his home. They would do odd jobs, and he would pay them. He lured them to his home and abused them over decades."

The pensioner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of indecency with five girls and three boys all under 16 in February. Two of the charges related to indecency with two girls in the 1940s but the most recent offence was in 1998.

In total he admitted three serious sex attacks, eight counts of indecent assault and five of gross indecency. He denied a further 11 charges against five other youngsters.

His barrister, Ebrahim Mooncey, said that the pensioner had no friends or family and had been a victim of child abuse himself when he was younger.

"He has said many times he is sorry for what he has done... He sees himself dying in prison, and I cannot ague with that."

The police investigation into Clarke did not begin until two years ago, when one of his victims told detectives how she was abused as a child.

Police then managed to trace 30 people who all said they had been abused by Clarke at his house. Most thought they had been the only one victim.

It is feared there may be still more victims who have not yet come forward.

Detective Inspector Lee Hill said throughout police interviews that Clarke had showed no remorse.

"Roy Clarke is a predatory paedophile who carried out calculated, systematic and sickening abuse of children for his own gratification.

"He is a very dangerous man, and I would be surprised if there are not a significant number of other victims who were ’groomed’ through swimming."

One of Clarke's victims, Malcolm, who was abused over a four-year period in the 1970s, said: "He is evil, and as far as I'm concerned, the only place he deserves to go is hell."

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