THEY trusted him to look after them and help them with their schoolwork.

Graham Gilmour was being employed at two Hampshire schools, teaching children and being paid to give extra lessons to those that needed more help.

But instead the vile support worker abused his position to prey on vulnerable young boys and sexually abuse them.

Today the 43-year-old is starting a 14-year jail term for what a judge described as a gross breach of trust stemming back more than 10 years.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Gilmour had left his two victims scarred for life by the sickening things he did to them, including forcing them to choose their sexuality while they were just children.

Gilmour stood nervously in the dock yesterday but showed no visible emotion as the harrowing details of the abuse he handed down were retold to the court and a packed public gallery.

They heard how one of his victims was aged 11-12 when he befriended him in “a highly inappropriate way” before carrying out a serious sexual assault which the court heard was “tantamount to rape” on him in the school library.

The boy, who was subjected to further sexual assault before the age of 13, was too young to even know or understand what was happening to him, Judge Gary Burrell QC said.

Prosecutor Rebecca Fairbarin told how the second victim was a pupil at a different school and suffered multiple sexual assaults at the hands of Gilmour, some of which happened during a maths class and others while the boy was alone in a car with him.

Mitigating for Gilmour, Michael Hall told how his client was a man of previous good character and the offences, as “as serious as they are”, happened over the course of three years.

In 2006 allegations were first made against him and it was not for at least four years, at some stage between 2010 and 2011, that he was to learn they were not proceeding.

But it wasn’t long before claims of sexual abuse by Gilmour resurfaced and police began investigating fresh claims made in 2013 and 2014.

Mr Hall said: “Mr Gilmour did in fact do an awful lot of good work with some of his pupils and it is a shame that would could have been a career in which he excelled has been marred by a few events.”

But jailing him and barring him from ever having unsupervised contact with a child, Judge Burrell told Gilmour that what he had done would live with his victims for the rest of their lives.

He said: “You have caused so much anguish to both boys and their families. You were supposed to be looking after them, not abusing them.

"You forced both of them into facing their sexuality at far too young an age and they have both been emotionally scarred by that.

“You were a grown man and should have known better. There were plenty of people warning, including your colleagues, at that time.”

Regarding his first victim who was aged around 11, Judge Burrell continued: “He had no idea what you were doing to him. You took advantage. It was a gross breach of trust, a dreadful thing to have done.

“Both parents and teachers trusted you to care for this child but you breached that trust in the most implausible way. What you did will be forever remembered by the boyu who will take that memory to his grave.”

Speaking about the second boy he abused, Judge Burrell added: “He was a bit older but still only young and he had no real knowledge of what was going on.

“You sought him out as someone who you thought may be receptive to your advances, who you thought might be gay as well.

“He has been left emotionally scarred. In a way you have robbed him of something.”

Gilmour was handed 10 years for the serious sex assault and a further four years for a sexual assault as well as individual sentences for each of the remaining eight counts he was found guilty of which will run concurrently.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and banned from working with children indefinitely.