A man has been left scared of crucifixes after he was subjected to a series of indecent assaults when he was a young boy by a man who wore one.

Christopher Hill kept a wooden cross around his neck when he carried out the assaults in church premises in Essex, a court heard on Friday.

Two other boys were also assaulted by Hill, 43, and Chelmsford Crown Court heard how 14 years after he fell victim to Hill, one man was still traumatised by the assaults he suffered.

"I still have nightmares about what happened," the man, now in his 20s, told police.

"I can't get it out of my mind. I get scared at the sight of a cross," he said.

Hill, 43, the technical director of a computer firm from Thornton Drive, Northampton, admitted five charges of indecent assault involving three boys between June 1973 and 1984 when he appeared in court for sentence.

He was jailed for six years and told to stay on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life. Judge Jonathan Haworth told him: "The courts will not tolerate this sort of behaviour."

The judge also said Hall had taken advantage of his membership of various church communities in mid Essex to abuse the boys.

Craig Rush, prosecuting, said the boys were aged between four and nine when Hall carried out the indecent assaults.

One of his victims was the son of a man Hill was lodging with at the time and the indecent assault was carried out while he was showing the child his computer.

Another boy aged nine was indecently assaulted by Hill after he engineered a friendship with another family, Mr Rush said.

At the time, Hill wore a wooden cross on a leather strap and this stuck in the boy's memory, the court heard.

The offences eventually came to light and when he was confronted by police, Hill told officers: "The damage I have done devastates me."

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