A clergyman jailed for sexually abusing vulnerable teenagers at a North detention centre has admitted further attacks on inmates.

Neville Husband was con- victed in 2003 of indecently assaulting five boys while working as a prison officer at the now-closed Medomsley Detention Centre, near Consett in the 1970s and 1980s.

Husband, 67, a married man, denied the charges but was found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court and jailed for eight years. He later abandoned his appeal against conviction.

He was due to stand trial at the same court yesterday accused of similar assaults on six other males at the centre after they came forward as a result of the case.

But the trial was abandoned after he admitted sexually abusing four of the six - all now in their 40s.

Judge Esmond Faulks sentenced Husband to two years imprisonment to run consecutively to the eight he is already serving.

He gave the pensioner credit for his guilty pleas which had saved the victims the trauma of having to re-live their ordeal in the witness box.

But he told him: "In your care were boys often from broken homes, or with personality problems.

"Instead of helping them overcome their problems, you took advantage of your position to sexually abuse a number of them with violence.

"It was a gross and wicked breach of trust which almost inevitably worsened whatever personality disorders they were suffering from in the first place.

"It effectively amounts to a campaign of homosexual rape over a number of years involving nine boys at least. You exploited your power over them."

The court heard Husband used his position in charge of kitchens at the military-style detention centre near Consett to select victims, using fear and violence to ensure their silence.

One of the latest four victims to come forward told how during one attack, Husband sexually assaulted him in a storeroom, holding a bread knife to his neck when he screamed.

"Each of the victims has to a greater or lesser extent been left with deep psychological scars," said Jamie Hill, prosecuting.

Toby Hedworth, QC, defending, said Husband had acknowledged his wrong-doing and found prison difficult, saying his client: "Lives in permanent fear of retribution and that in itself is a significant factor."