February 2000 YMCA sex fiend jailed A TOP official in the YMCA was jailed for 10 years yesterday for a string of sex assaults on young boys.  John Bygate, 58, was a former acting regional secretary and outreach youth worker who set up a “crash” flat for homeless youngsters.  But he used his position to interfere with boys aged 13 to 16.  Bygate, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was convicted of 12 charges at Chester Crown Court.  The judge told him: “There was an element of corruption because you promised them trips, gave them the use of a flat to smoke and drink or pretended to them they were something special.”  Steve Gould, head of Cheshire police paedophile unit, said: “He committed a series of serious sex offences over a long period of time. The gravity of his actions cannot be overestimated.”