June 2017 Man who abused two boys after posing as teenager in online chatroom jailed for 14 years A SEX offender who abused two boys after posing as a 19-year-old in an online chatroom has been jailed for 14 years. He bought a Grimsby boy drugs and subjected him to horrific sexual abuse, a court heard. Andrew Marshall, 41, denied 11 offences, including six counts of indecent assault, two of penetrative sexual activity with a boy, one of inciting sexual activity with a boy, one of rape and one of grooming. A jury at Grimsby Crown Court found him guilty of 10 of the 11 counts. The charge of grooming will lie on file. The court heard that Marshall first made contact with the Grimsby boy when the victim was aged just 12. The abuse continued for about five years and Marshall bought him gifts, including a mobile phone, computer equipment and drugs. He even set up a bank account in the boy’s name, telling him to treat the money that Marshall paid in for him as “pocket money”. Throughout that time, Marshall regularly pressured the boy into engaging in sex acts in his car and latterly at a Grimsby hotel. An investigation was launched in May 2015 when the victim went to Grimsby Police Station and revealed what had happened to him. During the course of the investigation it emerged that, in 2008, Marshall committed similar offences against a 13-year-old boy in Leeds. The victim revealed that Marshall also sexually abused him on two occasions after buying him expensive gifts, including designer underwear and computer equipment. Marshall, of Kimberley Road, Benfleet, Essex, was given a sexual harm prevention order, banning him from being alone with children or from working with them for life.