A dangerous paedophile living in Teignmouth has been jailed after he abused a vulnerable teenage boy on a voluntary conservation project.

Graham Staples lied about his previous convictions to get a job with the forestry scheme at Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot, and used his position to groom a 17-year-old boy with learning difficulties.

The teenager was so embarrassed after being sexually assaulted in a woodshed he threatened to take his own life and was detained in a mental hospital for a short time.

Staples, aged 55, moved to Devon to start a new life after being convicted of abusing a 12-year-old boy in Leicestershire in 2002.

He had worked on the voluntary project for five years but still harboured an obsession with boys which came to the surface when he was left alone with the victim.

He sexually assaulted the boy, invited him to go drinking with him and made sexual comments when he met him at work and by chance at Newton Abbot railway station.

Staples, of Exeter Road, Teignmouth, admitted sexual assault and was jailed for two years with a four year extended licence by Recorder Mr James Waddington at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him his sexual obsession made him a danger to the public which his previous sentence and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) had failed to reduce.

He said: ”My principal concern must be for the protection of the community. You must be categorised as a dangerous offender.

“You have a bad record and a SOPO did not stop you. You did not inform anyone of the order and got yourself into a position where you effectively groomed and assaulted this vulnerable victim.”

Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said Staples was convicted of indecently assaulting a 16-year-old boy in 1999 and a boy aged 12 to 15 in 2002 and was subject to a SOPO.

He had worked with the project at Seale-Hayne for five years without disclosing this, despite being required to do so by the order.

He befriended the boy who joined the project in 2014 as part of his school studies and abused him when they were alone in a shed where they were cutting wood.

Mr Grumbar said the boy told police: ”I stood frozen and wanted to kill myself. He told me not to say anything.”

The victim’s parents noticed a marked change in his behaviour. He became depressed and at one pointed needed in patient treatment in a mental unit.

Martin Salloway, mitigating, said Staples did not hide his past from the project deliberately and thought the agency which placed him on it would have told the organisers about him.

He said has his own mental health problems and may be eligible for help from a group in Plymouth.