As former general secretary of the Bristol RSPCA, Andrew Gibson was devoted to animal welfare. But, as a scout leader, he preyed on boys in his charge and kept that dark secret for more than four decades.
Bristol Crown Court heard that in sexual abuse which started 43 years ago, Gibson molested five boys all aged under 13. He targeted four victims when he was a scout leader and one when he was conservation warden on Lundy island.
The 84-year-old, of Trinity Place in Weston-super-Mare, denied wrongdoing. But a jury convicted him of nine charges of indecent assault and one of buggery.
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Judge William Hart handed him a 17-year sentence. That consists of 16 years' jail and a year's extended licence.
The judge told him: "For 40 years a dark secret lay behind your character. You had sexually abused five different boys and they have all carried the burden of that abuse into middle age." The judge commended both the victims as well as DC Kat Collier for her good investigation.
Police received report of Gibson's predatory sexual behaviour from 2016. Following a trial in March this year he was unanimously convicted of wrongdoing.
A jury heard he had targeted vulnerable boys and touched them improperly. The abuse of four boys occurred when he was a scout leader at a Bristol scout group, and he was found to have committed a serious sexual assault on a fifth boy when he served as conservation warden on Lundy island.
Rupert Russell, defending, told the court: "His entire life has been devoted to conservation and animal welfare." Mr Russell said Gibson had not only been general secretary of the Bristol RSPCA but was an organiser in the expansion of Bristol Dogs Home as well as working as conservation warden on the islands of Flat Holm and Lundy, where he established a nature reserve.
Mr Russell said: "He cares passionately for nature and has done a great deal to protect it." Mr Russell said his client had been diagnosed with vascular dementia, which would make it difficult to cope with any environment let alone prison.
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