Serial offender guilty of kidnap and abuse of boy

Lee Adams has convictions for sex attacks on young boys dating back more than 25 years and was on the sex offender register at the time he grabbed the 11-year-old in Beeston, Leeds on October 14 last year.

As a registered offender he was visited monthly at his home by police officers but Leeds Crown Court heard it did not stop him reverting to his old ways.

A jury at the court yesterday unanimously found Adams guilty of kidnapping the boy, false imprisonment and sexual assault.

The victim described how he was dragged back to the defendant’s flat and fell asleep on a bed after drinking black coffee and some juice.

The prosecution claimed he had been given some unidentified drug and Adams faced a fourth charge of administering a substance with the intention of stupefying or overpowering the youngster so he could engage in sexual activity with him.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on that charge and Nicholas Askins, prosecuting, told the court the Crown would not seek a retrial and it will lie on file.

Adams, 45, of Moor Crescent Chase, Beeston, in Leeds, was remanded into custody while pre-sentence and psychiatric reports are prepared.

Judge Gillian Matthews QC said, given Adams’s background, she wanted the reports to address the issue of the dangers he posed before sentence is passed.

The schoolboy had described over a video link how he was woken by police officers who went to Adams flat after he failed to return home and was reported missing.

He said he was approached by Adams who was riding a bicycle and asked if he wanted an Xbox 360. When he told him he did not, Adams grabbed him by the wrist. “I said let go. He said, ‘You’re not getting out of this.’”

Adams told him he had been watching him and dragged him back to his flat where he was threatened he would be killed if he did not do as he was told. Adams locked the front door when they got inside.

The boy told the court the coffee he was given did not taste right and when he was woken up by the police later he was confused and dizzy.

DNA evidence of saliva on the boy’s underpants and Adams’s tracksuit bottoms indicated sexual contact between them, the jury heard. The boy also complained of soreness where it was alleged Adams had touched him and his attacker had also left a “lovebite” on his neck.

Adams claimed the schoolboy went to his flat willingly and said he only gave the boy a lovebite because he felt down.

Adams has more than 100 offences on his record, including dishonesty, driving while disqualified and impersonating a police officer. His convictions for sex offences go back to 1983.

In October 1987, he was convicted at Leeds Crown Court of indecent assault on a 13-year-old boy he was babysitting having pushed him on to a sofa and simulated sex with him.

In 1988 he was convicted at the same court of three indecent assault on boys after taking them into a park, where he forced them to remove clothing and lie on the ground where he simulated sex with them.

At Huddersfield Crown Court in 1991 he was convicted of another indecent assault after befriending the victim and allowing him to ride on his bicycle. He then took him to a quiet area in a park, forced him to the ground and touched him indecently before his victim kicked him and ran off.

Finally in 2001 at Bradford Crown Court, Adams was convicted of an indecent assault on another boy in a caravan, an offence that led to his being placed on the sex offender register.