A Basingstoke man has been sent to prison after he was found guilty of sexually abusing children.

David Morison Barker was convicted by a jury of five counts of indecent assault of a child.

He was found not guilty of one count and no verdict was given on another two.

Barker, now of Cabus Nook Lane in Lancashire, was jailed for 12 years after the jury delivered their verdict.

The now 70-year-old had stood trial at Salisbury Crown Court accused of abusing three children in the 1970s and 1980s in South Ham and Popley.

The court heard during the trial held earlier this month that Barker was playing a game of hide and seek when he abused a boy.

The victim told the court that when he and the defendant, who has since moved to Lancashire, went to hide in storage space underneath a bed, he whispered to him: “This is what is preparing you to be an adult male, it’s our secret.”

He added that Barker then touched him sexually.