A 76-year-old former vet who abused children at a summer camp has been sentenced to 23 years and 10 months in prison.
Jon Ruben’s offending involved lacing sweets with sedatives before using them in a game with boys at the summer camp in Leicestershire.
The former vet and teacher pleaded guilty to 18 charges including sexual assault and child cruelty.
Ruben, from Ruddington in Nottinghamshire, looked emotionless as he left the dock.
His wife Susan, who he drugged to cover up his abuse, described him as a “sadistic, monstrous paedophile”.
At his sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Spencer told the Ruben: “Ultimately, this case is about you achieving sexual gratification by carrying out your sexual fantasies focused upon young boys through careful, cynical, chilling preparation and by manipulation.”
A general view of the scene in Stathern, Leicestershire
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PA
Ruben had developed his skill of poisoning “over many years” and careful selected his victims, who were “ordinarily young, small and white”, the court heard.
Prosecutor Mary Prior KC said the camp leader drugged his wife by putting sedatives in her tea so she did not wake up while he was sexually abusing the boys.
His stepson raised concerns with his partner during the camp after finding baby oil, vaseline and syringes.
Prior added: “Over many years he was a trusted leader of the community and abused his status to derive sexual pleasure from young boys.
Some of the boys had fallen ill after having the drug-laced sweets
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LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE
“Using the knowledge he gained as a veterinary surgeon, the defendant refined the use of sedatives to facilitate sexual offending on children, and vulnerable children at that.”
Some of the boys had fallen ill after playing the game and would be seen “walking into walls and in the wrong direction”, the court heard.
The children would be tasked with chewing and swallowing three sweets, with the quickest to eat all three winning a prize of a chocolate bar the next morning.
Ruben sought to interrupt the sentencing hearing by shouting “no” after the court told the prosecution he had breached his own safeguarding rules.
Ruben being questioned by police
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LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE
Mothers of the victims also delivered impact statements, including one who said their child had started self-harming following the abuse.
Another spoke directly to the defendant, and said: “You’ve ruined the lives of these children. You could have killed a child. I want you to suffer every day.”
Defending, Thomas Schofield KC told the court Ruben himself was sexually abused as a child.
He added “traumas can have an effect by preventing an individual from recognising further risk”.
He told the judge that the defendant was the “epitome of remorseful”.
In November, Ruben pleaded guilty to 17 offences including sexual assault of a child under 13, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and eight counts of child cruelty.