TV’s Talbot jailed over sex assaults on boys in his care
‘You preyed upon these boys’
‘He is paying for his actions’
TV weatherman Fred Talbot was yesterday jailed for four years after carrying out a string of sex offences against young boys during camping trips to Scotland.
Talbot, 67, indecently assaulted seven boys during school trips when working as a biology teacher between 1978 and 1981.
The former This Morning star had denied the offences and forced his victims to give evidence during a twoweek trial.
But a jury found him guilty of seven charges and he has now been jailed at Lanark Sheriff Court by Sheriff Nikola Stewart, who told him he taken advantage of the innocence of the boys.
Sheriff Stewart said Talbot ‘preyed’ upon his victims.
She added: ‘They trusted and liked you and were keen to go on camping trips and sailing trips with you.
‘That trust and that affection was grossly breached and you preyed upon these young boys, some who were away from home for the first time and were all utterly unsuspecting of your sexual danger to them.
‘You took advantage of the power you had over them to place them and yourself in situ- ations knowing they wouldn’t be brave enough to bring your disgraceful behaviour to the attention of others.
‘It leaves it in no doubt that these trips were organised by you for the sexual exploitation of the boys in your care.’
She added: ‘I applaud their sense of selfless social responsibility by coming forward.’
Talbot is already serving a five-year sentence for separate sex attacks on two boys while he was a teacher.
He was jailed in 2015 for the indecent assaults on two pupils from Altrincham Grammar School.
Police said the crimes, said to have taken place on trips in 1975 and 1976, ‘destroyed’ his victims’ childhoods.
His latest sentence will be served once the punishment part of his current sentence has expired.
Talbot’s trial heard he targeted pupils on school trips to Moffat, Dumfriesshire, and the Caledonian Canal in Inverness.
He urged young boys to drink alcohol before attempting to molest them in a string of incidents.
Stone Roses singer Ian Brown told the trial Talbot molested one of his friends during a camping trip.
He said: ‘The boy then left the tent and I saw him again ten or 15 minutes later.
‘I will always remember him diving back into the tent and landing on top of us.’
Brown, 54, told the court the boy alleged Talbot had attempted to commit a sex act on him before he ran away.
Mr Brown also said he had ‘waited 40 years to speak to a policeman’ about the allegations.
Talbot denied all the charges against him.
One of Talbot’s victims, now aged 53, told the trial he was aged 15 when he went on a trip to Scotland around 1979. The man told how he punched Talbot after being woken up by him attempting to sexually assault him.
He said: ‘My initial reaction was one of horror. The instinctive reaction was to put my hand up and strike him under his chin to knock him off me.
‘I felt shock, revulsion and horror.’
Procurator fiscal Fraser Gibson said: ‘Fred Talbot was in a position of trust and abused that to prey on vulnerable boys.
‘For over 30 years, he may well have thought that he had escaped justice but he was wrong and thanks to the courage of his victims in coming forward to report what happened to them is now paying the consequences for his actions.’
MAC IS AWAY