A FORMER soldier has been found guilty of sexually abusing a boy and two girls while on leave from the army more than 40 years ago.

Stuart Hood made a boy take part in sexual acts with him and chased a teenaged girl with a riding crop before assaulting her.

He carried out the assaults on the boy when he was living in a village near Okehampton just before he joined the army at the age of 16 in the late 1970s and when he returned to Devon on leave.

He abused one girl in the 1970s and the other in the 1980s after he had left the forces and was living back in Okehampton. He went on to work for 27 years at a hotel and golf course in the area.

Hood, aged 59, of Okehampton, denied but was convicted of seven counts of indecency and one of a serious sexual offence against the boy, who was a young teenager at the time.

He was also convicted of indecently assaulting one teenaged girl on one occasion and the other on two occasions after a week-long trial at Exeter Crown Court.

The jury found him not guilty of attempting to rape the second girl. Judge Anna Richardson adjourned sentence until next week.

During the trial, Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said the offences took place in the late 1970s and 1980s when Hood was himself a teenager or young adult but only came to light when the male victim contacted police in 2018.

All three victims had told other people about abuse at the time or since but the truth only came to light when police started in inquiry into the boy’s allegations which led to them tracing the two female complainants.

Mr Bremridge said Hood was a bully who had made the boy salute him and call him Sir when he was home on leave from the army. He scared the boy into cooperating and remaining silent about the abuse.

In one incident, Hood chased a teenaged girl while wielding a horse whip before cornering her and touching her chest.

Hood told the jury that none of the incidents had happened and all three complainants had invented their stories.

He said he had been away with the army at barracks in Dorset, Yorkshire or Germany at times when he was alleged to have carried out the assaults.

He said he had been happily married for many years and had worked at a golf course and as a builder.

Replying to the boy’s allegations, he said: ‘I really don’t know why he is saying these things about me. It is not true. I never engaged in any sexual activity with him.’

In a series of personal references, five friends told how they had known Hood for years as a decent honest, reliable family man who had been married or 37 years and played with the Okehampton Excelsior Silver Band.