A FORMER Southampton school teacher has been jailed for sexually abusing a young boy on a tropical Caribbean island.

Well-known sailor Derek Ide carried out the attack on the nine-year-old boy on his boat on the island of Trinidad in April this year.

The 67-year-old, pictured right, who used to teach at the former Bellemoor School in Shirley, initially denied grievous sexual assault but changed his plea to guilty to a lesser charge of serious indecency.

Now a magistrate on the tropical island has sentenced him to three years and four months behind bars.

But he could be extradited from the country to spend his time in a UK prison having received his sentence in the island capital of Port of Spain.

As reported by the Daily Echo, the well-known yachtie carried out the offence at the Power Boats boatyard in the coastal town of Chaguaramas, in the St George West area of the country.

The assault is alleged to have taken place on board Ide’s yacht.

The child then informed his parents, who are not native to Trinidad, and Ide was held by the boy’s father before he contacted the police.

Ide, of Netley Cliff, Victoria Road, Netley Abbey, Southampton, was elected president of the Southampton Schools Association in the 1970s.

Under Trinidad law, Ide could have faced up to ten years behind bars.

However Maureen Baboolal- Gafoor sentenced him after telling the court children needed protection from sexual predators.

Sean Cazabon, who defended Ide at Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court, said an application will be made to the British High Commission to have him extradited.

He said Ide was convicted of a similar offence in the UK in 1983, adding his client is willing to participate in therapy and counselling when he is eventually deported.

After his conviction earlier this month, people who live near Ide’s Southampton home expressed their shock over his arrest.

A man living in Grange Road, whose mother-in-law used to live in the same block of flats as Mr Ide, said: “It’s a big shock as whenever I saw him he was very nice and polite.”

The Foreign Office revealed it had been made aware of the arrest and that staff were providing consular assistance.