Traveller jailed for abusing young Leeds boys more than 30 years ago
A traveller has been jailed after being found guilty of abusing two young boys more than 30 years ago.
Bernard Joyce was convicted of 15 offences, including buggery, after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.
He was jailed this week with the judge telling him he purposely targeted the boys for his own sexual gratification.
The court heard that the abuse started around 1990 when Joyce was around 15.
The abuse went on for eight or nine years, starting when the first boy was nine and the second boy being six. It happened in various homes around Leeds.
He would climb into bed with the victims when they were asleep and sexually touch them. He would masturbate in front of them, kiss them on the neck and put his penis between their legs.
Joyce then “escalated” his abuse with one of the boys, which led to the buggery offence. The boy was left crying in pain, the court heard.
The first victim had not told anyone until he confessed to his partner while in his 30s, after his drug use spiralled.
The second victim, who the judge said may never have come forward, only did so after the first went to the police.
Joyce, of Cottingley Springs Caravan Site, Gelderd Road, Gildersome, was arrested in May 2022 and denied all allegations.
His trial took place in May of this year and he was found guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault, one of indecency with a child and one of buggery.
The 48-year-old appeared in court for sentencing via video link from HMP Leeds.
Mitigating, Rebecca Young said Joyce was only a teenager at the time the offending started, but conceded she can offer no “real explanation” for the offending.
She said he will never be able to return to the traveller community upon his release.
Judge Tahir Khan KC jailed him for six years, put him on the sex offender register for life and gave him a lifelong sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).