A senior civil servant has been unmasked as a sex offender 20 years after abusing two brothers in his Army cadet group.

Police only became involved when new allegations were made by one of the brothers, who had kept details secret until last year.

Mark Golding used his position as an "imposing" and "authoritarian" lieutenant of the Army Cadet Force in Marmion Road, Hove, to "groom" and sexually abuse the boys, then aged 14 and 15 and now in their mid-30s.

Hove Crown Court heard Golding, 47, abused the boys when he was a rising star in the cadet force in the Eighties, telling each of them afterwards that it would be "our little secret".

The boys were cadets at the ACF's drill hall and he was their commanding officer.

He twice indecently assaulted the younger brother in a tent at a summer camp in 1981 and the other boy at the drill hall at about the same time.

Hove Crown Court was told an investigation was launched by an ACF colonel and a major after the boys' parents discovered what had happened.

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said Golding, then 25, was confronted and immediately admitted indecently assaulting the younger brother.

He said, with the parents' agreement, it was decided not to report the matter to the police.

Golding was advised to resign his commission as a lieutenant but no further action was taken by the force on the condition the then lieutenant promised not to work with children again.

He went on to build a career in the Civil Service and became a special adviser to the government on Poland, living there for two years.

Golding is likely to lose his £50,000-a-year job and his luxury flat as a result of the assaults coming to light.

Mr Barton said: "He was arrested when he returned to the Cabinet Office in London last year.

"As the boys' commanding officer he was in a position of authority over them.

"The dark and negative side of it is that he breached the trust that the parents put in him.

"He abused his position to groom the boys and to sexually abuse them. He used his authority to ensure their compliance."

Golding admitted three charges of indecent assault against the brothers and three similar charges were ordered to remain on file.

A single man, he had moved from his home in Hove to a luxury rented flat at Maritime Quay in Docklands, London, as he built his career in the Civil Service.

Miss Philippa McAtasney, defending, said the ACF was Golding's life at the time and he put a lot of his own time and money into it.

He took cadets on a trip to battlefields in France, to stock car races and to military museums and shows, including the Royal Tournament.

She said he had been highly regarded as a man of honesty and integrity in both the ACF and in the Civil Service.

She said: "These offences took place over a very limited period during a time when he was experimenting with his sexuality. He crossed the line of acceptable behaviour.

"His fall from grace is huge, his reputation is in tatters and his life is now devastated. It is likely that he will lose his job and as a result will also lose his rented home.

"He has never sought to minimise the impact of what he did and is genuinely remorseful for the brothers.

"He has not re-offended, has remained celibate ever since and has no interest in sex."

She said Golding had shown "courage" by admitting some of the offences back in the Eighties and had stuck to his word by promising not to work with children since.

Judge David Rennie gave Golding an 18-month suspended sentence suspended for two years and ordered he should sign the Sex Offenders Register and pay £820 costs.

As the brothers left court, the youngest said: "He should have gone to prison but we are glad it is now over and we can get on with our lives."

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: "The Cabinet Office will consider the individual's position now the court case has been concluded."