A PROLIFIC paedophile who sexually abused a teenage boy after luring him to his Weston-super-Mare house to play computer games has received a 16-year prison sentence.

Simon Walford, aged 44, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Monday after being found guilty last month of four serious sexual assaults, including one charge of attempted rape.

Former pet shop worker Walford abused the youngster, who was aged between 11 and 15 at the time, after bonding with him over video games between 1999 and 2003.

He had been charged with nine sexual offences in total, including two charges of raping another younger boy, but was cleared of four charges of rape and one charge of attempted rape after a nine-day trial.

The court heard that Walford, who admitted having a sexual interest in teenage boys, would regularly play Xbox and PlayStation games with the boys at his house.

He was convicted in 2003 of indecently assaulting the younger complainant in this case and indecently exposing himself to the boy and his friend, aged 11. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

Martin Steen, prosecuting, told the court: “Here was a house where young boys could come and do things.

“Then, in due course, you (Walford) would move things towards the sexual sphere.”

Jurors also heard that Walford was already serving an indefinite prison sentence at a specialist sex offenders’ prison for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in a separate incident in 2009.

He told jurors he met the teenager after absconding to Blackpool and said the reason he fled was because his house was vandalised by a neighbour.