A man who committed an historic sexual assault on a child has been jailed.

Nicholas Henshall, 42, of Hawthorn Way, Hurdsfield, pleaded guilty to indecent assault on a boy at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday.

The crime dated back to the early 1990s.

Henshall also pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing indecent images and nine counts of making indecent images.

He admitted having 2,933 indecent images and videos of children between October 7, 2011, and April 24, 2013.

The charges included possession of category A images, the most severe level.

Yesterday Judge Rajeev Shetty sentenced Henshall to three years in prison.

Michael O’Brien, defending Henshall, said the indecent assault was an isolated incident and ‘not the most serious’, and also accused the victim of ‘exaggerating’ the impact of the crime.

But Judge Shetty rejected Mr O’Brien’s claims.

He said: “The victim was innocent. When he was asleep you fondled him. It was sexual abuse to fulfil your perverted sexual desires. The victim struggled to understand this vile act. It had a profound affect on him. The innocence of childhood has been taken from him. He has gone through the humiliation and embarrassment of dealing with this experience. None of this is his fault. The blame lies at your door.

“Why you did this is unexplained by you still to this day. But your sexual interest in young boys has endured.

“You were arrested and found with sexual images of children. I have seen some of these images and quite frankly they are sick. The indecent images involved very young, prepubescent children. You also used software to cover up your tracks.

“You have difficulty coming to terms with your sexual interest in children. You’ve done nothing to atone for this.”

Henshall was jailed for 28 months for the indecent assault and eight months for the indecent images charges.

He was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which prevents him from working with children.