A retired farmer has been jailed at Exeter Crown Court after the Jimmy Savile scandal prompted a victim to tell police how he was abused more than 40 years ago.
Church elder Philip Huxtable was told his reputation as a pillar of the community had been destroyed by the revelations about how he touched the boy after giving him a Saturday job at his farm.
Huxtable, aged 78, is a retired farmer from North Devon who was the leader of the Braunton Boys Brigade and had been an elder and lay preacher at his Methodist church.
He is a well known figure all around Devon because he worked for many years as secretary and insurance representative for the National Farmers Union, covering an area from South Molton to Holsworthy.
He was also chair of governors at Shirwell Primary School for eight years and a governor at North Molton school for 20 years. He has served as clerk to the Pilton, Shirwell and Fremington parish councils and been chairman of the Dexter Cattle Group.
His secret remained hidden for more than 40 years until his victim, who was 14 at the time but is now in his 50s, finally disclosed what happened to him when he went to visit Huxtable's farm at Shirwell.
The victim lived with the psychological trauma until the break up of his marriage but then told a family member who suggested counselling. He finally went to the police after being emboldened by reading about the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Huxtable, aged 78, of Westaway Close, Barnstaple, was found guilty of three counts of indecently assaulting the boy in the mid 1970s when he was aged 13 to 15.
He was jailed for two years by Judge Erik Salomonsen, who told him:"You were a much older man in a position of authority. He was frightened and you took control.
"He told nobody at the time and only made disclosures after seeing a counsellor and when the Jimmy Savile matter came to public notice he gained the courage to report it to the police.
"The victim impact statement shows there is a continuing psychological impact. He was only 13 to 15, you were in your late 30s, and there was a disparity of age.
"You were a man of distinction and good character who was highly commended by those you worked with in the Boys Brigade, Methodist church and youth club.
"You did national service and were employed by the NFU for many years and were well known and respected in the local community. That good character has been lost by you."
During a three day trial the jury heard how Huxtable ran a youth club for local teenagers in the early 1970s and employed the boy with a Saturday job at his farm in the summer and autumn of 1973 when he was 14.
The boy said the farmer exposed himself to him as they were cleaning a cowshed and went on to touch him repeatedly there and in his van.
He said he had been abused again five or six years later when he went to the NFU offices to get car insurance.
He explained why he had not made any complaint back in the 1970s. He said:"It is hard for people to understand it now, but things were different then. The discipline and everything were different. If I had told my father he would probably have hit me for telling tales."
Huxtable said his only sexual contact was in the cowshed and had been initiated by the boy and rejected by him. He denied abusing the victim in his van, saying he needed both hands on the wheel to negotiate the winding lanes around his farm.
He explained his apparent admissions in police interview by saying he had been browbeaten into saying thing he did not mean by the detectives.
