A “DEPRAVED” chef who sexually abused three children over a 30-year period has been jailed for 12 years.

Terence Neathey, who worked at RAF Honington, was convicted of assaulting two schoolboys and a schoolgirl on 23 occasions.

Nineteen of those attacks, including an attempted rape, were against a boy aged between six and 15.

Appearing at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday, Judge David Goodin told Neathey he had to be sentenced to a lengthy term in prison for “more than a decade of wicked depravity”.

Neathey, who served in the armed forces until he was medically discharged in 1988, indecently assaulted the girl on two occasions between 1980 and 1983 when she was aged under 10.

He touched the girl after asking her to sit on his lap and did it again when she stayed with him and his wife at their military home.

Neathey, now 53, of Livermere Road, Troston, near Bury St Edmunds, denied claims that she had confronted him about the assaults in a Lowestoft cafe last year.

The remaining two offences were committed against a boy aged under 10.

During the original trial, the court heard how Neathey used a pair of tights to tie up and gag one of the schoolboys.

It was claimed he had also taken part in sexual activity with two of the boys at the same time.

The offences took place while he was living in Lowestoft, and Barnham. The female victim came forward after one of the schoolboys made a complaint to police.

Neathey had denied all of the charges, claiming the three victims were lying.

But Judge Goodin said two of his victims had been left traumatised by his actions.

He said: “One victim now finds it difficult to form relationships with people such is the catastrophic effects of your actions.

“Another testimony illustrates the appalling personal effects of your determination to gratify your own depraved sexual urges.

“You have to be sentenced for a number of years as a result of more than a decade of wicked depravity astonishing in its breadth and depth.”

Neathey was told he must serve at least two thirds of his sentence before being eligible for release.