A paedophile royal butler who once introduced a young victim to the Queen Mother at a Clarence House Christmas party has been given an indeterminate jail sentence.

Paul Kidd, 55, once made a living on the after-dinner circuit telling what he described as “hilarious” anecdotes about life below stairs at Buckingham Palace, gathered from his years in royal service during the 1970s.

But he was less forthcoming about his secret life as a serial abuser of impressionable young teenagers, whom he befriended and groomed assiduously before sexually assaulting.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar described him as a dangerous man who posed a risk to every teenage boy he met before jailing him at Minshull Street Crown Court, in Manchester, for a notional sentence of 12 years. He said he would have to serve a minimum of six years before he could be considered for release.

Kidd, of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, had already pleaded guilty to nine offences of indecent assault, sexual activity with a boy, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photographs and possessing indecent images of children. The charges relate to historic abuse against three separate individuals dating back 32 years to 1975.

Kidd began work as butler to the Queen in 1976 and remained at the Palace for six years before transferring to Clarence House, where he performed a similar role for the Queen Mother.

During his royal service he came to boast that he had looked after three US presidents and every monarch in Europe. He also boasted that he had been awarded the Most Noble Order of Merit by the West German President.

After he left Clarence House, he advertised himself as a royal expert ready to give lectures around the world about what made the Queen smile, ‘those damn corgies’, the ghillies at Balmoral Castle and the ‘Queen Mother’s whip’.

His secret life as a predatory groomer of boys as young as 12 emerged last year after he gave an interview in a local newspaper as part of the coverage of the tenth anniverary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It prompted one of his victims, now in his forties, to come forward to complain that Kidd had abused him in the early 1980s when he was 13.

Nicola Gatto, for the prosecution, told the court that Kidd would befriend his victims’ parents as part of the grooming process, and would indulge his victims with treats and trips before sexually assaulting them.

In 1974, he took a 14-year-old on holiday to the Lake District before the abuse began. Later he took him to Clarence House, where he was introduced to the Queen Mother over tea.

Another victim, identified only as Victim A, was 14-years-old in 1981 when Kidd invited him to his flat to discuss a shared interest in CB radios after befriending his parents to gain their trust.

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