May 2003 Ex-army leader abused boys A senior civil servant has been given a suspended jail term for abusing two brothers while he was the leader of an army cadet group 20 years ago. Mark Golding was sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Thursday after admitting three of six counts against him. The 47-year-old was a lieutenant of the Army Cadet Force in Hove, East Sussex, when he abused the boys, who were then about 13. The court heard how Golding, who until recently worked for the Cabinet Office in Poland, indecently assaulted the boys during a summer camp in the early 1980s. Golding resigned from his post after one boy told his parents, but no action was taken on condition he did not work with children. Police became involved last year when the other brother made new allegations after keeping the abuse secret for 20 years. Judge David Rennie sentenced Golding to 18 months in prison but suspended it for two years because the case had not been dealt with by the police at the time. He said: “For your own perverse gratification you sexually abused those boys during a one or two day period in 1981. ‘Scarred by sordid events’ “For you, Mark Golding, that was an end to it for some 20 years and you went on to carve out for yourself a highly successful life in the civil service. “The two boys you abused were not so lucky. They found they were unable to forget what you did to them, and in their own words, were scarred by those sordid events.” Judge Rennie said he accepted Golding’s career would be ruined but said he could not take that into account when passing sentence. He placed Golding, of Maritime Quay, east London, on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.