A DISGRACED science teacher has been jailed again after he admitted sexually abusing a pupil during classes over a period of two years.

Michael Wilde, from Old Hall, has been put behind bars for a third time for touching boys he taught at Wade Deacon High School in Widnes in the 1970s.

Warrington Guardian:

Wade Deacon High School

The 70-year-old was handed a six-month jail sentence on Tuesday, April 2, for indecently assaulting a boy who was aged 12 and 13 when he was repeatedly abused in the middle part of the decade.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the defendant, a chemistry teacher who also filled in as a substitute during PE lessons, would attack his victim in class while answering the pupil's questions.

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Wilde, of Drake Close, would approach the boy and stand near to him while responding to queries in lessons - placing his left arm on the victim's shoulder and touching him sexually with his other arm.

This abuse continued until the end of the youngster's second year at the Farnworth school, when he grabbed the defendant's wrist during an attempted assault and said: "F*** off you b******."

A statement from the victim that was read out to the court described how he still has nightmares about Wilde, a married man and dad-of-three, to this day.

In these dreams, he attempts to run away from his former teacher while wearing his rugby kit - having been forced to give up the sport as Wilde was in charge of the school team.

Warrington Guardian:

He also described seeing the defendant's 'leering smile' while male colleagues were trying to help him and being 'humiliated and powerless to stop' his attacker as a boy.

The pensioner has previously been convicted twice for sexually abusing five schoolboys at the school, receiving three years behind bars in total in 2015 and 2016.

Wilde - who brought a packed bag with him to court and 'deeply regrets his gross breach of trust' - assaulted these pupils on dozens of occasions in the school gym, while they were getting changed before games and as he was administering first aid following a laboratory accident.

Warrington Guardian:

Michael Wilde after being jailed in 2016

He admitted four further counts of indecent assault during an earlier hearing at Warrington Magistrates Court last month.

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Sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this week, judge Louise Brandon said: "During lessons, you would touch your victim while purporting to answer questions from the pupil.

"This happened again and again, and your behaviour towards him escalated.

"It was only in his second year at the school that he bravely brought what you were doing to a stop, when he confronted you.

"What you did affected his life in so many way - he struggles to trust male figures of authority, and sees your face leering at him when he speaks to them.

"He has felt guilty as a result of what you did, but that if completely unjustified.

"You damaged him and made him angry and resentful as a teenager - it has been a shadow cast over his whole life."