A pensioner molested a "confused" boy on a bus as oblivious passengers sat just metres away.

David Sharp denied attacking the 15-year-old after striking up a conversation with him on the Stagecoach service from Ashford.

But a jury took just two hours at Canterbury Crown Court to unanimously find the 69-year-old guilty of preying on the teenager.

Judge James O'Mahoney told Sharp, a retired chef: "In my view this was thought through, designed to engage the youth in flattering conversation leading up to deliberate sexual touching.

"For your sexual pleasure you have heard what you have done to that young man, an intelligent, polite, and courteous young man.

"And it might be he was so polite it is a pity he didn't get straight away from you.

"You should be utterly ashamed of yourself."

With his wife in the public gallery, Sharp remained emotionless, looking straight ahead as the verdict was announced.

The jury heard the father-of-one, who was unknown to the boy, argue he was "happily married" with "no sexual interest in males".

However, the court heard police had already cautioned the predator for inappropriately touching a 17-year-old boy in 2014.

After hunting down and attacking his latest victim on a popular bus route, Sharp then accused the boy of lying in an effort to avoid jail.

But his victim, now 17, saw justice brought after a four-day trial, where he gave evidence.

He told the jury Sharp first honed in on him, to test the waters, as he sat alone at the back of the top deck.

The pervert began making small talk, complimented his physique, and called him a "good lad" interspersed with occasional non-sexual touching.

When the boy took a return journey a few hours later he was "shocked" to see Sharp sitting in the same spot, a jury heard.

It prompted the boy to sit downstairs, among other passengers, but Sharp swiftly followed and assaulted attacked him.

The passengers and driver remained unaware, he told the jury.

During a police interview played in court, the victim said: “I got my headphones out, went to listen to music, pressed the play button and he comes over, and I thought 'here we go'.

“The first thing he says (sic) is 'I'm going to keep you company'.

“All of the back seats were free, but he decided to come and sit right next to me.”

He described Sharp casually talking to him before carrying out the sexual abuse and making lurid remarks.

However Sharp’s barrister Sarah Selby argued any touching was accidental.

“Could he have touched you when he was moving around?” she asked.

“No,” the victim replied.

“Could it be possible when he touched you, it wasn’t deliberate?” she asked.

“No - it was deliberate,” he said.

“Is it possible you misinterpreted that man’s actions as sexual that day, when indeed they were not?”

“It’s not possible,” he said.

The teenager told officers he fled the bus to escape the suspect and phoned his parents who alerted police.

Asked by prosecutor Tony Prosser how he felt during the assault, he said: “I felt a bit stressed out, a bit angry, it’s just a bit worrying why an old man was touching me.”

The court heard the CCTV system on the bus was out of service on the day of the attack and Sharp couldn't be traced.

However, the victim ran into his attacker a week later at a KFC takeaway, where the defendant was filmed.

After a CCTV still was circulated by KentOnline, Sharp attended a police station where he gave a "no comment" interview.

"For your sexual pleasure you have heard what you have done to that young man, an intelligent, polite, and courteous young man" - Judge James O'Mahoney

The teenager then positively identified him during in ID parade.

In his opening speech Mr Prosser told the jury: “The crown say the defendant sat beside the boy late on Saturday afternoon.

"The boy says the old man engaged him in conversation and then began to touch him sexually.

“The boy says he was embarrassed and confused by the old man’s actions.

“David Sharp admitted he was that man and accepts he engaged him in conversation but says there was no such sexual touching."

Sharp, of Apsley Street, Ashford, was convicted of one count of sexual assault, carried out in December 2017.

He will be sentenced on January 20 to allow time for reports and was released on conditional bail.

They include not contacting a person under 18 apart from his own son and he is put on the Sex Offenders' register.

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