A PRIMARY school teacher has been jailed for six-and-a-half years for sexually abusing boys over a 15-year period.

York Crown Court was told how Howard Beattie, 52, abused five boys, some aged ten or 11, following day trips to the coast.

Other boys were abused on a trip to Ambleside in the Lake District, while other victims were assaulted at Beattie's flat after watching pornographic videos and drinking alcohol.

The offences began in 1977 when Beattie was a newly-qualified teacher at a school in York.

The court heard Beattie formed a more intense relationship with one of his victims and the abuse continued for several years.

Beattie took him on day trips to the coast and took him shopping to buy a coat. He also took him swimming and to the cinema, where he carried out a sex act. He also told him he could earn money by performing sexual favours for him.

When the youngster reached the age of 13, he said he wanted the abuse to stop because he was interested in girls.

Beattie pretended to take an overdose and the youngster ''relented and the day trips continued'', the court heard.

The court was told that when the allegations first began to surface, Beattie said he had himself been abused in a storeroom by his teacher.

When interviewed by police, Beattie denied the allegations and only pleaded guilty on the opening day of his trial yesterday.

He admitted ten indecent assaults and three counts of committing indecency with a child. Two other charges of sexual activity with a child were left to lie on file.

The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, said Beattie had abused his position. He said: ''That your offences span a total period of 15 years and that you were committing offences against very young children aged ten to 11, to that extent it must follow they were vulnerable and impressionable.

''In committing these offences you have committed a serious breach of trust.''

Referring to the boy who Beattie had formed a more intense relationship with, the judge said he had resorted to ''emotional blackmail'', saying it ''was a clear and nasty case of extensive corruption of that boy''.

Nicholas Barker, mitigating, said his client, of Main Street, Knapton, near York, had done a lot of good work in his career, a career that was now in ruins.

He said Beattie was now in a stable, married relationship and his risk of re-offending was low.

Beattie was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and was disqualified from working with children.