SHOTLEY: A former football club manager and chairman who lured teenage boys to his home, gave them alcohol and groped them is today awaiting his fate.

John Paul Card, 63, invited youngsters to his home in Queensland, Shotley, where he would touch and try to kiss them.

Card, who has a long association with Shotley Rose FC including being the club’s groundsman, also sent his victims sexually explicit text messages and got angry if they didn’t reply, South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court heard.

Card appeared before magistrates yesterday and pleaded guilty to 12 sexual offences.

The court heard that four boys, who can not be named for legal reasons, were sexually assaulted by Card between December 2005 and November 2010.

Prosecutor Tess James said that the boys, who were aged between 13 and 16 at the time of the assaults, had all met Card while playing football.

Ms James said: “These were vulnerable young men who were lured to the defendant’s house with alcohol and cigarettes.

“On one occasion a group of them went to his home and there was a lot of sexual banter. The defendant told the boys he was gay.

“He touched a boy on the bottom and around his groin area. He then tried to kiss one of the boys but they resisted.”

One of the victims told police how Card had touched his bottom while he stood in the club’s dug out during a football match.

Magistrates told Card that he would be sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court at a later date and released him on unconditional bail.