November 2015 Child sex offender lured schoolboys with drink and drugs – Jailed 14-years FOUR men have told a court how as boys they were lured with drink and drugs to the home of a sex abuser, who has now been jailed for 14 years. The men, who are now in their 30s, told Derby Crown Court yesterday that Jonathan Land, who at the time of the offences in the 1990s lived near a school in Spondon, had ruined their lives and harmed their mental health. One of the victims, who Land groomed and abused from the age of 11 to 14, said: “He has ruined and taken my childhood away from me and I can never get that back. “Even now, I suffer with depression and paranoia and have wanted to end my life so many times. “I have never moved on with my life and feel stuck in the time when my abuse happened.” Land, 48, now of Hillcrest Road, Derby, was convicted by a jury of 17 counts of indecent and serious sexual assaults on the four victims in the 1990s. Jailing Land, Judge Nirmal Shant QC said: “Over a period of many years, you groomed these four boys and… despite your limitations you were well able and did manipulate them in such a way, when they should have been in school and learning, you lured them into your parents’ home with drink and drugs and you did that in order that you could abuse them, and that’s exactly what you did. “The fact is, what you did had a very profound effect on the course of their lives.” Police launched an investigation in March last year, during which they identified and spoke to a large number of men who had attended Land’s address in the 1990s. All of them confirmed the accounts given by the victims about Land providing drugs and alcohol to young boys in Spondon. Following the sentencing, the victim, who was abused from age 11, said: “He was very manipulative. He would make you feel like you needed him. It was weird how he got into your head. “The reason I kept going back and back is that I felt safe around him, even though he was abusing me. When I think back, I realise it was to do with all the grooming he did. “I now feel like Superman that we got him 14 years, and he deserves every single year of it. I can now start moving on with my life.” Another victim, who was abused at age 13, said his attacker tied him to a bed and undid his jeans. The man said: “I started going into a panic and I threatened to scream so that his mum and dad would hear me, so he slacked off and I managed to get free. “I never went back after that. We believe there are more victims and hope they will come forward to the police, who have been absolutely wonderful through the whole investigation.”