The driver of a bin lorry which crashed and killed a pensioner has been jailed for raping a boy in his outdoor hot tub and sexually abusing another youngster.
Nathan Beauchamp, 41, used his position as a childminder and mentor to the boys before ‘acting out his fantasies’ when no one was around.
He was found guilty of raping the 12-year-old boy three times between January 21, 2018, and January 20, 2019.
Married Beauchamp was also found guilty of having sexual activity with a second boy aged nine and 10 between the same dates.
The offences happened four years after he was behind the wheel of a bin lorry which plowed into Sylvia Russell, 69, on September 29, 2014.
Paramedics rushed to the scene outside an Argos store in Worcester city centre but the pensioner was pronounced dead at the scene.
Beauchamp, of Elsdon, Kempsey, near Worcester, was cleared of causing her death by careless or inconsiderate driving in 2016.
But on New Year’s Eve, he was jailed for 12 years after he was found guilty of rape and sexual offences following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court.
Judge Michael Cullum said: ‘You have been convicted of some of the most serious offences it is possible to commit – the rape of a young child.
‘The lad was clearly fond of you and your wife by the way he enjoyed coming to your house and being around your family.
‘You were entrusted with a degree of responsibility of parenting by being something of a father figure to him until you abused him.
‘You are openly bisexual and looked at pornographic sites and concentrated on looking for young males. However, you did not look for images of children.
‘You created the scenario to act out your fantasies when no one else was around and rape him. As we’ve heard you did this repeatedly.
‘You repeatedly took the older boy into the bedroom for “punishment”.
‘You took the opportunity to build on the trust between you to groom this boy, even though you may not have gone looking for it.
‘There is no real evidence of physical harm to the older boy, but a 12-year-old who has been raped and having to go through the humiliating process of telling his school, his mother, grandmother, the police, a jury, and a judge, he is bound to suffer psychological harm.
‘Luckily he was brave enough to tell all those people and there is a question of your abuse having altered his sexual compass.
‘This is why the sentence is very harsh.’
The court heard Beauchamp occasionally took care of the boys at his home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, after school and his role ‘developed from being a childminder to being a mentor’.
Prosecutor Anna Midgley said: ‘The boys liked being looked after by Beauchamp as he had a hot tub in the back garden.
‘But over time it is alleged that he took the elder boy into the bedroom and raped him.
‘The 12-year-old later told the police that it occasionally happened in the bathroom and once in the hot tub.
‘And on another occasion in the hot tub, he is alleged to have sexually assaulted a younger boy aged between nine and ten.’
The court heard the authorities became involved when the older boy got upset at school last June and told a teacher that Beauchamp had raped him.
Ms. Midgley said the abuse had a psychological effect on the older boy and there were signs he was becoming sexually deviant.
Sophie Murray, defending, said Beauchamp had a ‘happy family life’ before his sick crimes.
Beauchamp was acquitted of a further charge of raping a child under 13 in a hot tub.
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