A MAN has been jailed for groping a 15-year-old boy.

Mark Brown was visiting the boy’s home at a village near Okehampton when he kissed him, stroked his thigh, and put his hand inside his shorts.

Brown, aged 49, was sat next to the teenager and carried out the assaults while he was playing computer games in his bedroom, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He repeated the attack the next day and claimed he was teaching the boy about the danger of sexual predators. 

The incident followed the boy telling his parents and friends that he believed he was gay and planned to come out as being homosexual.

Brown, from Torquay, admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child and was jailed for 20 months by recorder Elisabeth Bussey-Jones.

She ordered him to sign on the sex offenders’ register and made a sexual harm prevention order, which will restrict his future access to children. She also made a restraining order preventing any contact with the victim.

She told him: ‘The victim impact statement indicates the lasting effect your actions have had on him. It talks about his feelings of stress and anxiety and finding his everyday struggle more difficult to manage.

‘He was significantly vulnerable because of the disclosures he had made recently. It was a difficult and emotional time of his life.’

Mr Richard Posner, prosecuting, said the offences happened when Brown was visiting the boy and his family and was alone with the teenager in his room.

He said the most serious part of the offence was Brown putting his hand inside the boy’s shorts and touching his naked genitals during his first visit. He claimed he was teaching him about the dangers of sexual predators but then clenched his fist and told him not to tell anyone.

Brown has a previous conviction for indecently assaulting an 11-year-old boy in 1999.

Miss Julie Brimble, defending, said Brown would benefit from going on a sex offenders course and this would not be possible if he was sent straight to jail.

She said the abuse was short lived, confined to two occasions, and he has shown remorse and is ashamed of and disgusted by what he has done.