The 66-year-old had entered guilty pleas to seventeen offences against a total of six victims at a previous hearing.

Brian Treadwell, prosecuting, said the offending began in the 1970s when Eamens was in his twenties and ended in around 2011 when he was in his mid-fifties.

Throughout that time, Eamens targeted several young boys – grooming and carrying out sex acts on them, as well as encouraging them to undertake sex acts on him.

Given when it was committed, one of the offences he had admitted was charged under the then-relevant act as ‘buggery’ – the legal equivalent of which is now rape.

Mr Treadwell read statements from several of the victims, in which they described the long-lasting impact Eamens’ actions have had on their lives.

Judge Rhys Rowlands told the defendant: “There are six victims, each of whom were young when they were abused by you.

“It is testament to their courage that now, as grown men, they have come forward – and now you are to be held accountable for your behaviour.

“They had to live with what you did to them, while you moved on. Living your life, moving from one victim to another.

The Judge explained that he intended to sentence on the most serious lead offence in respect of each of the victims, with sentences to run consecutively and reflecting the totality of his criminality towards each of the victims.

The equivalent legal definitions of offences and relevant guidelines were considered where the offence charged now has a newer counterpart than those in existence when some of the crimes were committed.

Overall, Judge Rowlands jailed Eamens for 17 years – two thirds of which must be served in custody before he becomes eligible for release.

Eamens must sign on as a sex offender indefinitely, and he was made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.