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A couple forced their son to engage in sexual acts with them to keep him ‘straight’ over twisted fears he may become gay, a court has heard.

The 11-year-old boy's father told police when he was arrested that he wanted to keep his 11-year-old son "on the straight and narrow" and that their abuse was a form of sex education.

Today the couple, from Barnetby in North Lincolnshire, were starting jail sentences totalling 15 years after a judge was told of the humiliating sex experiences they made the boy go through in a bid to counter homosexuality.

The victim had initially told the police what was happening to him in 1998 but his father lied to detectives and he was not believed. The judge described the lies as a "betrayal of your son".

(Image: Getty Images)

Years later the victim, now in his 30s, complained again to the police and this time the father and the boy's step-mother were both arrested and charged with a string of sex offences.

The father and step-mother sat in the dock at Reading Crown Court as prosecutor Ruby Silva described to the court how in caring for the child, they had begun a routine of humiliating sexual assaults from when the boy was aged 11 years.

Ms Silva read aloud a statement from the father’s initial interview with police, citing how he had claimed the abuse was to “keep him on the straight and narrow path,” following the couple's irrational fear of their son being a homosexual.

The court heard how the father, who was convicted of charges of child cruelty and indecent acts with a child, had allowed his then girlfriend to involve his son in routine sexual acts as part of an "ill-founded sex education." She was charged with child cruelty, indecent assault and indecent acts with a child.

The prosecutor told judge Maria Lamb that over the course of years during the mid-1990’s, the couple now in their 60s, would force the child to watch them have sex as well as perform sexual acts on the child involving oral sex, touching the child’s genitals and forcing him to engage in sex with the step-mother in an attempt to educate him as to how heterosexual relationships worked.

(Image: Google)

Defence counsel Timothy Shorter, representing the father, now of Weymouth, Dorset, said that his client had admitted child cruelty and indecency with a child and was cleared by a jury after he denied indecent assault.

Stood in front of the father dressed in a hot pink shirt Mr Shorter said: “Witness testimonies have demonstrated how the father had put himself out for the community. He had made open admissions of misconduct and did not touch the child himself.

“He was very much the lesser role and you will note that the victim’s statement reflects that fact," said Mr Shorter.

“He at no other point engaged in similar activity and was an upstanding member of the community until he took in his son from his first marriage into the home he shared with his new girlfriend.

“The father has had this hanging over his head for a long time. As such, I urge you to consider a suspended sentence.”

(Image: Getty Images)

Shaun Smith, counsel for the step-mother, admitted that she had consistently denied any wrong doing right up until the sentencing. She denied and was convicted by a jury of indecent assault of a child, and two counts of indecency with a child. She was cleared of one count of indecency.

Her defence barrister, Shaun Smith, said as she sat in the dock wearing a zebra print blouse: “There are some people who hold her with a degree of regard and consider her somewhat well."

However, Judge Lamb was not convinced and added: “This was a child who had been neglected by his mother and was particularly vulnerable.

“You have both argued that this whole trial process has weighed heavily on the both of you. This will provide you absolutely no mitigation. This was your own warped sense of right and wrong.

"The damage that you two have done is unacceptable".

Turning to the step-mother she said: “For your own personal sexual gratification, you performed sexual acts on a boy who considered you his mother.

"This was your warped sense of right and wrong."

“One of the most sickening aspects is how you pointed a finger at wholly innocent people, such as the boy’s birth mother. I have read and re-read the victim’s statement. He was desperate for affection and you wholly exploited that.”

The judge, displaying clear dismay at the defendants, sentenced the step-mother to nine years in prison and father to six years in prison.