The victims of a depraved paedophile bravely stood up in court to describe the impact his appalling abuse had on them.
Trevor Ainslie, now 67, was described as treating his seven young victims as "playthings" as he was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
Ainslie, of Berrylands Close, Moreton, wheedled his way into the lives of the victims' parents through his involvement with a local church and social club.
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Impact statements from six of those whose lives he blighted were read to the court, including two read out personally by the victims themselves.
Both men were praised by Judge Garrett Byrne for their courage in standing up in public to reveal just how badly Ainslie's deliberate and selfish behaviour had impacted their lives ever since.
The man who suffered the most severe physical abuse repeatedly stared over at Ainslie, who sat impassively in the dock, as he read out his painfully moving account.
Some of his supporters in the public gallery sobbed as he told how his life has been one of fear, shame and silence since Ainslie targeted him.
He said: "This impact statement simply can not accumulate all my feelings of 40 plus years, this is a snippet, a mere grain in the sand of how things affected me and still are to this very day.
"His sexual actions he forced upon me, made me change and shape my life entirely and constantly from a child, through all my teen years, onto adulthood, through parenthood and throughout over 40 years from that very first night he took me away from being a child.
"I have been hiding the real me ever since that very first night because of the shame of anyone finding out what had happened to me."
He said: "Fear, shame and silence is all my life has been since that very first morning walking out of his house.
"My silence that very first time must have been a clear green light for Trevor Ainslie to continue his abuse of me over the next five or six years affecting me right through my entire life."
He told how the trauma led him to becoming disruptive and angry as a teenager and he discovered that Ainslie was also molesting other young children.
He said: "Things I went through that scared me for life. Many things I still cannot write down. they will stay with me until the day I die."
He also told that he actually defended his abuser when family and friends described him as a child molester out of fear of anyone finding out that he had been a victim.
He eventually he told his best friend and later his mum, and told the court: "Sharing some of my hell with those closest to me was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. They all said they kind of 'knew' something was 'traumatising me'…they could 'see it' …people could 'see' how something had been eating me up for years now."
He described how the abuse impacted his mental health and told the court he had made a number of suicide attempts, adding: "Many nights ended up on a train track, on a bridge and eventually escorted off to hospital for assessment…again.
"When people say things like, 'not a day in my life has passed when I don’t think about such and such', well let me assure you how very true that statement is in my own life.
"For over 40 years I have lived with the fear, shame and silence of simply hearing the name Trevor Ainslie and all the hate that it still fills me with. Ever since this happened I have been a broken child growing into a broken man."
Another boy to suffer at Ainslie's hands took to the witness box to tell how he had been affected.
He said: "Trevor, I'm not going to stand here today and shed even one tear over what you did to me when I was a small child.
"You can't do a thing to myself or any other innocent and vulnerable children from now on so I'm going to stand here and speak from my heart and also be a voice for those who are unable to have the courage to stand up here and face you because of the trauma you have caused many people."
He said he had never forgotten the abuse and how Ainslie had created many victims including his own mum whom he manipulated into thinking he was a "God adhering" person to gain access to him for his own sexual gratification.
He said: "Your arrogance led you to believe that your crimes would go unnoticed, well your time is up."
He continued: "The fact I have never forgotten about what you did to me has led me down a path of drink and drug abuse as well as self-harm. This has led to me being unable to maintain a caring and loving relationship because I mask the pain with drink and drugs.
"Not any more. Knowing you are in a place where you belong, my recovery can finally begin. You left so many scars. I only have to see certain things on TV or smell certain smells and it immediately takes me back to the trauma you put me through.
"I can finally begin to move on with my life knowing justice has been served. I'm going to take one last look in your eyes and tell you one thing. Such a character has no place in society."
David Polglase, prosecuting, read statements from that victim's mum and four of the other victims in which they told how the trauma had impacted their lives.
Judge Byrne jailed Ainslie for 28 years with an extended three year licence, and told the defendant he will have to serve at least two thirds of the custodial term before he can apply for parole.
Ainslie was ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders' Register for life and Judge Byrne also imposed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, a lifetime ban on working with children and a restraining order to keep away from his victims.
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