A FORMER sports coach has been jailed for the second time for historic sex attacks on young boys.

Michael Green was sent to prison for 12 years after being found guilty of attacks on young boys in Brighton and West Sussex between 24 and 38 years ago.

The 74-year-old, of Aldrington Close in Hove faced 17 charges of indecent assault against seven boys, which included jumping into bed as their sports coach and groping them at his home.

The victims were between 12 and 16 between 1980 and 1994.

He was previously jailed for nine years in 2014, for offences including buggery. 

Green was also known as a friend and mentor of Sarah Payne's killer Roy Whiting.

Detective Constable Dawn Robertson said the paedophile actively engaged himself in sports in order to gain access to his victims.

He had met three of those boys while he was head coach of juniors at the Brighton Ice Hockey Club, and one while he was involved in coaching junior cycle speedway in Havant.

The Argus: PAEDOPHILES: Green and Whiting

Paedophile pals Mike Green, left, and Sarah Payne's killer Roy Whiting, right.

The other three boys were separately assaulted while pupils at Windlesham House School in Washington, West Sussex, on dates between 1988 and 1994, where Green was a cricket coach at the time.

Green was convicted of four offences against one of them, three of which were committed during school trips to the cinema in Brighton and one at the school, and two offences against each of the other two boys, one of which was committed at Green's then address, the other three being committed at the school.

Green had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives from the Brighton Safeguarding Investigations Unit.

The court also heard that Green, then of Aldrington Close, Hove, had been sentenced to nine years imprisonment at Hove Crown Court on 28 February 2014 for four counts of sexual offences against four young boys.

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Those 2014 convictions had resulted from an investigation by Brighton detectives into information received in 2011 that a young boy had been sexually assaulted by Green in the early 1980's also when he was living in Nevill Avenue.

Three further victims forward during that first investigation, and Green was convicted of one offence of buggery against the boy in Havant, and of indecent assault against the three other victims, all in Hove. A further charge of buggery against the first boy was ordered to lie on the court file.

All the boys in the 2014 case were aged between 13 and 15 at the time of those offences which took place between 1981 and 1982. Green had met them separately in Havant and South London whilst he was engaged in the running of junior cycle speedway clubs.

He had met his first victim at the now defunct Havant Cycle Speedway Club.

Detective Constable Dawn Robertson, who was involved with both investigations, said; "Green's 2014 sentence received considerable publicity and as a result these seven further victims came forward to us over the ensuing months.

"We have great admiration for their readiness to help see justice done, and for giving evidence at Green's trial where he denied the allegations throughout and continues to do so even after conviction, as he did in 2014.

"It is clear that throughout that period of the eighties and nineties he was actively involving himself in different types of sports coaching, all of which had one thing in common - they gave him access to young and often vulnerable young boys who he systematically abused under the guise of helping them.

"Reports of this type will always be taken seriously and investigated wherever possible. Anyone who wishes to report such offences can contact the police at any time online or by calling 101, and can arrange to talk in confidence to experienced investigators.

Police emphasise that offences relate to a period starting nearly a quarter of a century ago, and that there are no current safeguarding issues in relation the sports activities involved, or to the School who co-operated fully throughout the investigation.