David Roy Stannard, 62, urged a child to perform a sexual act when the young boy’s father went to the shops and left his son alone briefly with Stannard, York Crown Court heard.

Then the paedophile falsely accused the child of hitting him in a painful place when the father returned and the boy told him what Stannard had done.

In a personal statement from the father, the court heard how the experience had changed the boy’s personality.

When walking on his own the boy “felt someone was following him and he fears (Stannard) is going to come for him and snatch him away,” the statement said.

Stannard, who has decades of convictions including for arson, violence and dishonesty, but none for sexual matters, should have been sentenced in January.

But he went on the run to Blackpool.

Arrested by police he was brought back to York Crown Court in custody and claimed he had been the target of attacks in York.