A DEPRAVED Scout leader who tied up a young boy for sick photographs and made another perform perverted sex acts to indulge his fetish for socks has been jailed.

A judge branded Earl Adams, who admits getting sexual kicks from boys’ grey socks but still insists he is not attracted to children, as a danger to youngsters.

The 43-year-old, from Southampton , was caught by police who found he was using an Internet chatroom where paedophiles shared vile pictures and videos.

Adams, understood to have been a Scout leader in the Fareham and Gosport area, was said to be trying to get into the “inner circle” of users by passing on new images.

Despite admitting owning and distributing hundreds of sickening pictures of children being seriously sexually abused – which ranged up to the most extreme legal category – he denied assaulting the two boys, forcing them to relive their horrifying and humiliating ordeals in court.

A jury rejected Adams’ lies and convicted him of two counts of sexual assault and another of gross indecency on the youngsters, who were aged between 10 and 14.

Southampton Crown Court heard that he made one of the children wear a Scout uniform and football kit before tying him up for 35 photographs he then shared with other paedophiles.

The other youngster was forced to play sexual “games” involving socks during systematic abuse stretching over four years.

When police searched Adams’ computer and memory cards they found hundreds of pictures and videos he had downloaded.

Adams, of Barry Road, Bitterne , admitted 13 counts of possessing and distributing indecent images of children, before being convicted of two charges of sexual activity with a child and a further count of gross indecency with a child.

Jailing him for a total of five years for the offences, Judge Gary Burrell said he was in no doubt Adams poses a significant risk of serious harm to the public, especially young boys.

He told Adams, who sat throughout the hearing with his arms resting on the front of the glass-walled dock: “In order to further your sexual interest and appetite and fetish in relation to socks you committed acts of gross indecency.

“He had to go through the humiliating process of giving evidence about that in court because you pleaded not guilty.

“On occasions you would have (the other boy) dress up in various garbs, but always prominently in socks which provided you with sexual gratification.

“That young man now feels used and angry and who could blame him?

“Your behaviour indicates a preparedness to be both manipulative and abusive.”

Adams was also placed on the sexual offenders’ register for life, banned from contacting children under 16 without their parents’ consent and knowledge of his convictions, and from using the Internet or electronic storage devices which could not be surrendered to police.

Speaking after the case, Det Con Ben Hibberd said police did not become aware Adams was a Scout leader until they arrested him.

He said: “Hampshire police work with authorities to actively target paedophiles and we will do all we can to bring such people to justice and protect the public, no matter how historic allegations may be.”