A retired architect and former scout leader has been jailed for six years at Mold Crown Court for abusing two boys between 1976 and 1984.
Derek Wiggett, 72, from Deiniolen, Gwynedd, was extradited from France after two men claimed he abused them when they were aged six and seven.
He admitted unlawful sex, attempted unlawful sex, indecent assault and sexual activity with a child.
Judge Peter Heywood said his guilty plea saved him from an 11-year term.
The court heard Wiggett was at “the height of respectability” in his local community when the offences happened.
Polite and well-dressed, he had worked as an architect for the former Gwynedd county council, was an accomplished mountain climber, the president of his local climbing club, a Queen’s scout leader and an experienced bee keeper.
“I am specifically instructed to apologise unreservedly to the two victims for his offences, for what he did and for the harm that he has done”
Gordon Hennell Defending
But in 2009 two men in their 30s came forward to say that they had been seriously sexually abused by him when they were children.
Kim Halsall, prosecuting, told how one of the victims did not want the police called even after he had suffered a breakdown in later life and then told his mother.
He told the court he felt angry and described how the defendant had ruined his life, taking away his innocence.
The second man told his wife but did not make a formal complaint until after his mother had died, as he did not want her to go through the pain of knowing what had happened to him when he was young, the court heard.
The man told how Wiggett had breached his mother’s trust in a “most horrible way”.
Wiggett was aged between 39 and 46 at the time of the offences and the boys were aged between six and 11.
Judge Peter Heywood said it was clear that Wiggett had befriended the boys, groomed them, showed them films, indecently touched them and ultimately performed acts upon them which under present day legislation would amount to rape.
The case was aggravated by the very young age of the victims “who really had no idea what was happening to them,” he said.
Gordon Hennell, defending, said: “I am specifically instructed to apologise unreservedly to the two victims for his offences, for what he did and for the harm that he has done.”
“When he comes out he will be an old man in every sense of the word,” Mr Hennell said.
In addition to the jail sentence, Wiggett was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for life.
A 10-year sexual offences prevention order was also made to protect young boys in the future.
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