A 28-YEAR-OLD man who was sexually assaulted as a child has been jailed for 21 months for a sex assault on a young boy.

Paul Downey, of St Aldate Street, Gloucester, was convicted by a jury last month of sexually assaulting the seven-year-old boy while visiting his family home near Dursley.

He denied the offence during his trial but Gloucester Crown Court heard he now acknowledges his guilt.

When he was a teenage pupil at Bredon School, near Tewkesbury, Downey was cautioned for nine sex offences against other boys but was not prosecuted, the court was told.

Jailing Downey for 21 months and imposing a sexual offences prevention order on him, Judge Jamie Tabor QC said: "You had a very difficult schooling and childhood and your moral compass was swung in the wrong direction in a school where there was sexual offending by grown ups and pupils.

"I have no doubt that has affected you although you yourself took part in a whole catalogue of criminal offences in that school.

"I also accept that you are not perhaps quite as bright as some other people. But you know what is right and what is wrong."

During Downey's trial the court was told he was a friend of the boy's father and spent the weekend with the family near Dursley at the end of May last year.

The jury took just under four hours to convict Downey by a majority of 10-2.