An 86-year-old Stevenage man who was last year convicted of historical sex offences today admitted two further charges of indecently assaulting boys – but he has been spared jail.

Michael Shewan, of Lonsdale Road, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting boys aged under 16 when he appeared at Cambridge Crown Court this morning.

He was already serving a suspended jail sentence – nine months, imposed for 18 months in October last year for similar offences – but today he again escaped jail time, receiving another suspended sentence.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth handed down a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered Shewan to pay £1,500 in costs. He also imposed a restraining order.

The court heard that Shewan abused one of the boys between January 1978 and December 1980 and the other between May 1984 and May 1986. Both were in Stevenage.

The indecent assaults for which he was convicted in October were against a boy under the age of 14 in Stevenage, between December 1980 and December 1984.

The two suspended sentences will run alongside each other.