Portslade cub scout leader jailed for decades-long child abuse

A former cub scout leader dubbed a “paedophile hiding in plain sight” has been jailed for 16 years for sexually assaulting children as young as seven years old spanning nearly three decades.

Ian Silvester, of Locks Hill in Portslade, East Sussex, previously denied 83 charges of historical sex abuse in Hove and Worthing.

Silvester, 60, who also worked as a babysitter, diving instructor, first aid trainer and St John Ambulance trainer, was found guilty of 79 of those charges following a trial at Lewes Crown Court in November.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison with an additional six years on licence at the same court on Friday.

Sentencing Silvester, judge Christine Laing KC said: “You are the very definition of a paedophile hiding in plain sight.”

The judge said the defendant had given his victims a “lifetime of shame and regret”, telling the court the abuse happened so “openly and plainly and so often in front of others”.

Impact statements were read out in court each describing the confusion and shame felt by his victims.

One man who was abused by Silvester said: “You are a monster who picked the most vulnerable in society.”

On devices seized from Silvester’s home were images and videos of his victims being assaulted by him as well as indecent images of children, online chat logs and web searches of sexual interest in young boys.