A man who was found guilty of the sexual abuse of four people in Oldham when they were young boys must wait longer to find out what his sentence will be, because the judge wants to hear full accounts from his victims of how it affected their lives.

Damien Riley had been on trial over the last two weeks accused of 12 counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency.

He was accused of taking boys aside in the 1980s and performing sexual activities on them.

The 55-year-old claimed it was all a fabrication and said he did not even know two of his accusers.

The first complainant said he had been living with the trauma all of his life, managing to tell his mother in 1994 and seek counselling after that but said he had not been able to go to the police until 2018.

The jury saw through Riley’s denials and after just over four hours of deliberation found him guilty of all 13 counts.

Following this Riley, of Ewood in Bardsley, Oldham, was instructed to turn up at court today for a possible sentence, which he was would “inevitably” be one of a jail sentence.

During his appearance at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, judge Angela Nield said after having reflected over the weekend she wanted to give all four victims in the case the opportunity to write a victim impact statement if they wanted to.

She said their evidence had not allowed her to fully see how it affected their lives, noting the first complainant had covered this in just a few sentences.

Representing Riley, defence counsel Simon Blakebrough asked for his client’s bail to be continued, stating he had turned up for court yesterday and on every other occasion when he had been required to.

But judge Angela Nield declined this, stating he would have been remanded on Friday had the trial not been at the Lowry, operating as a nightingale court, where this was not possible.

Riley had faced an additional charge of indecent assault on the first complainant but this was dropped because of a legal rule in force at the time.

As it emerged Riley may have been under 14 at the time, even if the incident had taken place there was not evidence to prove he knew it was wrong rather than “naughty or mischievous” even if it could be proved the offence took place.

For later charges against the same victim he issued threats to tell people, so it was clear he knew it was wrong.

Riley will be sentenced next month.