Ex-sports teacher jailed for abuse

Former sports teacher Keith Ruby was jailed for 10 years by a judge at Taunton Crown Court for a series of sexual offences against a boy
4 January 2013

A former sports teacher at a private school has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Keith Ruby, who used to work at an independent Quaker school in north Somerset, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against a promising rugby player.

Taunton Crown Court heard the offences were committed after Ruby had left his post at Sidcot School in Winscombe, near Weston super Mare.

Ruby, 36, convinced the boy he had the talent to become a professional rugby player and the grooming was so successful that the victim "hero worshipped" him, the court heard. He even managed to dupe the boy's own parents into trusting him and they allowed Ruby to take their son for one-on-one coaching sessions.

He wormed his way into the boy's life and even joined his family for meals around the dinner table. The boy's parents were so trusting that they let Ruby take him on an overseas rugby trip.

The abuse happened during massage sessions at the victim's home, in the changing rooms at two local rugby clubs and on the trip abroad. When the boy's parents began to have suspicions about the defendant, the boy lied to police to "save Ruby's skin", the court was told.

Judge Graham Hume Jones said Ruby abused the boy on "many occasions" over a 12-month period when he was between the ages of 14 and 15. "This was a course of conduct which took place over about a year and you abused the trust of a young boy," the judge told him.

Ruby was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life, made the subject of an indefinite sexual offences prevention order and banned from working with children for life.

The defendant, of Biddisham Lane, Axbridge, Somerset was convicted by a jury last month of 11 counts of sexual activity with a child and five counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child. He was acquitted of two charges of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and two charges of sexual assault of a child under 13.

Allegations of indecent assault and fraud were left to lie on file while the judge ordered not guilty verdicts to be recorded on charges of possessing indecent images.

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