A former teacher plied a teenage boy with cigarettes and alcohol before abusing him.

David Gutteridge was working at Orley Farm Preparatory School in Harrow during the late 1980s, when he indecently assaulted his young victim, then aged between 14 and 16.

The 60-year-old, formerly of High Street, Chatham, Kent, and now of no fixed abode, was found guilty at Harrow Crown Court on Tuesday, February 17, of two counts of indecent assault.

The court heard how, between 1986 and 1988, Gutteridge, who was a friend of the victim's family, would invite the boy to his flat at weekends. There he would ply him with cigarettes and alcohol and ask him to watch pornographic movies, before abusing him.

The assaults only came to light when the victim, by then in his late 30s, confided to his wife and decided to go to the police.

DC Claire Harrison of the Met Police's Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: "The victim has stated that the abuse has had a significant detrimental effect on his life due to what happened to him in his formative years.

"I would like to pay tribute to his courage and strength in coming forward and standing up in court to tell his story."

Gutteridge was arrested on September 17, 2013, at his old home in Kent and charged with indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16.

The original trial last September ended in a hung jury, but he was found guilty at the end of a two-week retrial and is due to be sentenced on March 13.