TV weatherman Fred Talbot guilty of sex offences against boys

The 67-year-old was found guilty of indecently assaulting seven teenage boys during camping and boating excursions while he was a biology teacher at a school in the Manchester area in the 1970s and 1980s.

Talbot, of Greater Manchester, had denied the allegations, but was convicted of seven of nine charges following a trial at Lanark Sheriff Court.

The two charges he was cleared of were one of indecent assault and one of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices.

The offences were against boys aged 15 to 17, and happened during separate trips to Scotland – one near the St Mary’s Loch area in Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, and the other at the Caledonian Canal in Inverness in the Highlands.

Among the witnesses who gave evidence to the trial was Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown, who was not an alleged victim but was one of Talbot’s pupils.

The 54-year-old said he never forgot the moment the teacher invited one of his friends to sleep in his tent during a school trip.

Brown said Talbot would personally select students to go on his excursions.

During the trial, victims recalled the “horror” of being “singled out”.

Several witnesses told of incidents during camping trips, when they would wake up in the middle of the night to find Talbot inside their tents, touching them.

According to them, Talbot stood out as different from other teachers, and would talk to his pupils about topics such as pop music, alcohol and sex.

The jury took four hours over two days to consider their verdict.

Thursday’s conviction comes as the former TV personality was already serving a five-year jail sentence for indecently assaulting two school boys during school canal barge trips in the Cheshire area in the mid-1970s.

He is due to be sentenced on 15 June.