A WORKINGTON pensioner who worked in local theatres has been jailed for sexually abusing two teenage boys.

At Carlisle Crown Court, the defence barrister representing 74-year-old Paul Stuart Adams, who refuses to accept his guilt, said the former teacher fears he may die in prison as a result of his conviction. 

But as he imposed a seven year jail term, Judge Richard Archer told the pensioner, who was once responsible for pastoral care at the school where he worked, that the impact of his offending on the victims was profound.

Adams, who ran his own home-based music recording business and worked in theatres across west Cumbria, denied more than a dozen charges, including allegations of paying a child for sexual services.

The jury found him guilty of nine charges involving the abuse of two boys.

Adams had a reputation locally as somebody who was knowledgeable about the world of theatre and that helped him gain access to his victims because their parents were happy for their sons to go to him for advice about acting, the court heard.

Prosecutor Robert Wyn Jones had earlier told the jury that the defendant, while working at theatres in Whitehaven and Workington, had taken advantage of the two boys after they showed an interest in acting.

When one boy visited Adams at his home, the pensioner plied the youngster with whiskey before asking him to strip naked. One teenager was also shown a pornographic video that involved spanking, the jury heard.

The first victim developed a drug problem because of the abuse and Adams took advantage of this, paying the boy sums of between £100 and £200 so he could touch him sexually or strip naked, the court heard.

Challenged in court by defence barrister Richard Dawson, the victim described Adams as a "master manipulator".

For several minutes today, as Adams sat listening in a prison video booth, one of his victims spelled out the impact of the abuse, describing how he had turned to using Class A drugs to blank out what the defendant did to him.

Now an adult, the man said: “Prior to the [defendant’s] crime , I was not a drug user or dependent on alcohol. But as a result of the crime, I became heavily dependent on alcohol and drugs, using cocaine and Ecstasy.

“At the worst time of drug using, I was using the drugs daily. I started using drugs as a result of what was happening to me and the addiction lasted for around three years.”

In 2021, said the man, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse. He said: “I was suffering with nightmares and flashbacks – particularly if I had seen someone who matched the height and weight of Paul Adams. 

“I would wake up numerous times in the night in cold sweats. I would get flashbacks of the recording studio and what Paul did to me.”

The court heard also from the second victim as his impact statement was read aloud.

He spoke of struggling to return to the area because doing so brought back memories of the abuse. He suffered depression, panic attacks, and trust issues.

As he passed sentence, Judge Archer said he was satisfied from the evidence that Adams had also abused a third boy, and behaved inappropriately towards yet another youngster.

“You were a pillar of the Workington community,” said the judge.

Involved in the theatre there for many years, Adams had a reputation as a worldly man, with experience of life beyond west Cumbria.

“It was that reputation and that experience which led to both your victims visiting you at your home,” said the judge.

Those visits were with the implicit approval of their parents, who trusted him. Referring to one of the victims, the judge added: “He feels that the better years of his childhood were taken from him by you, Paul Adams.”

Judge Archer jailed Adams, of Banklands, Workington, for a total of seven years. The defendant will be on the Sex Offender Register indefinitely and he will be the subject of a strict sexual harm prevention order until further order.

Adams will be released from prison on licence at the halfway point of his sentence.

One of the two victims contacted the police after reading a story in the News & Star confirming that Adams had been charged with sex offences.

He was found guilty of sexually assaulting and paying for the sexual services of a one boy who was aged 16 and 17 years old at the time.

Adams was convicted of four charges relating to the indecent assault of the second boy, who was 15 when the abuse began.