THE VICTIM of a paedophile coach lost his taste for football when the man he trusted tried to rape him in an Old Town bathroom.

Yesterday, 33 years after the incident that cast a shadow over the 13-year-old’s life, coach Ronald Webb was jailed for four-and-a-half years at Bristol Crown Court.

Webb, 76, who in 2012 earned a lifetime ban from all council-owned public toilets in Britain following a voyeurism conviction, remained emotionless as prosecutor James Tucker read out a statement from the victim.

The former player, now in his mid-40s, said: “When I was 13 I had one love in life and that was playing football. I ate it, drank it and slept it.”

Webb had invited teen players on the Old Town team he coached back to his Winifred Street home early in the summer of 1986 while the lads were on their school lunchbreak.

The group had watched a pornographic film, leaving the boy feeling embarrassed. Afterwards, Webb barged into the bathroom as his young victim was urinating. He forced the boy against the cistern and tried to pull down his shorts in an attempt to rape him.

Had he not managed to escape, the victim told police “I was in no doubt where his penis would have gone”.

It was only in 2017, a year after seeing an interview with pervert coach Barry Bennell’s victim Andy Woodward, that he came forward and reported the assault to police.

In his victim impact statement, the man said he felt it was his fault – that he had gone to Webb’s house in his lunch break, when he shouldn’t have done, and so in some way was to blame.

“I managed to suppress the pain and keep what had happened to me to myself, not knowing what to do or who to turn to,” he said.

He had flunked his GCSEs, started smoking and drinking as a youngster and suffered from PTSD as a result of the abuse. He was also constantly on his guard, he told the court.

Wanting to put the incident behind him, he added: “I wish I could travel back in time to say [to his 13-year-old self] it’s not your fault and everything will be okay because you’re strong.”

Webb, of Brook Road, Bath, was found guilty earlier this month of attempted rape.

George Threlfall, defending, said his client was fearful of how he would cope were he to lose his flat and possessions in the event of a custodial sentence. He said of Webb: “At his age there is always a risk with a lengthy sentence he may never come out of prison.”

The court heard Webb has a lengthy criminal record, dating back to 1952, and in 2012 was banned from all council-owned public toilets in Britain following a conviction for voyeurism.

Sentencing Webb to four-and-a-half years imprisonment, Judge William Hart said: “It was an attack that lasted no more perhaps than some 30 seconds but the memory of it lived with [the victim] throughout his childhood and his adult life.”

Welcoming the sentence, Det Sgt Lawrence Billi of Wiltshire Police said: "I hope this case shows that if people do feel able to come forward and speak to police, that we will take them seriously and will do everything we can to support them and bring offenders to justice."