A PERVERTED pensioner who carried out sex attacks on a schoolboy he met at a model railway club has been spared jail.

Wilfred Smith "lost control" of himself on two occasions and "reaped significant distress" on what was a close loving family.

Judge James Burbidge QC told the 69-year-old: "I hope in the cold light of day you understand the gravity of what you have done."

It was accepted, said the judge, that the pensioner had met the boy legitimately and that he had not gone out seeking to abuse a child.

"Mercifully the touching was not as serious as these courts sometimes see," he told Smith, of Swallowfields Road, Sedgley.

Smith had denied two charges of sexual assault on the boy but he was found guilty by a jury at the end of his trial.

He was given a 22 month jail term, suspended for two years and told he must register as a sex offender for 10 years and made the subject of a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.

The judge also ordered him to pay £500 compensation to the boy for the harm and distress his offending had caused.

"Sadly you made him go through the process of giving evidence," said the judge who felt Smith would not be appearing again before a court in the future.

Amy Jackson, defending, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Smith, a former engineer, had been very active in the local community.

She stressed he had no previous convictions for similar offending and said the assaults on the schoolboy had been a one-off incident