A man who won £70,000 libel damages from The Sun after the paper accused him of being a paedophile has been jailed for life – for being a paedophile.

In March 2011 the paper reported that Gibbs, 65, fled to Thailand “to prey on teenagers for sex” before coming back to the UK.

In November that year it was announced that The Sun would be paying damages after the High Court heard how Gibbs felt “his life had been put in danger” by the allegations against him.

In January 2012, The Sun issued an apology saying: “We wrongly reported that George Gibbs was deported from Thailand for child sex offences as part of an international investigation. We sincerely apologise to him for this error and the distress caused.”

But he was last week convicted of raping and grooming boys as young as nine over an eight-year period.

Under the headline, “We told you”, The Sun reported Judge Denis Watson, on announcing Gibbs’ sentence of at least ten years, as saying: “This would likely not have happened without the press interest in your time in Thailand.

“You pose a risk to members of the public and only a life sentence can protect them.”