A man living in Newhaven who committed a series of sexual offence against two young boys at his previous address in Norfolk Road, Brighton, has been given a 13-year prison sentence.
68-year-old Keith Freeman, retired, of Brighton Road, Newhaven, was given his sentence on Wednesday 7th March, at Lewes Crown Court. After a trial on the same day he was convicted of seven offences. He also admitted to three others.
Freeman will now remain on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.
He committed nine offences of buggery, attempted and gross indecency, against one boy aged between aged 11 and 16 between 1979 and 1983. He also committed one offence of indecent assault against a second boy, then aged between 15 and 17 between 1983 and 1984.
Freeman met the first boy when he was on his own in a vulnerable position in Brighton town centre, when he invited him back to his flat nearby and began a series of sexual assaults that stretched across four years. Finally, when the boy was 16, he felt he had the power to end the relationship.
The second boy met Freeman around 1983 when he was 15 years old, when he was offered a lift while hitchhiking back to where he was living in Rottingdean. Freeman made made some advances and eventually managed to engage the boy in sexual activity.
Detective Constable Tom Duffy said; “These victims came to us separately in 2014 and 2016. They were vulnerable at the time of the offences and their experiences have clearly caused them considerable emotional damage that has affected their lives since.
“However they were ready and able to give their evidence in court and this helped ensure that justice was done.
“Freeman was a predatory sexual offender against these vulnerable young boys and the seriousness of this has been reflected in his sentence.”
