A paedophile who raped and sexually abused two brothers while coaching a youth football team in Oxford has been locked up for 11 years.

Paedophile Gerard Cullen

Gerard Cullen, 43, raped one of his victims more than 70 times and sexually assaulted the other on dozens of occasions during a seven-year campaign of abuse.

The victims' family, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, spoke of their relief after a jury at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday unanimously convicted Cullen.

He was found guilty on five charges of rape and five of indecent assault. All took place between 1991 and 1998.

The boys' eldest brother also accused Cullen of indecent assault.

But the jury acquitted him on those charges after hearing that the boy had spoken up in court in Cullen's defence in 1997 after a 13-year-old boy had accused him of rape.

The former chef had become a trusted friend of the brothers' family after meeting the eldest boy and his father through a boys' football club where he was a coach and referee. He raped the middle child, described as the most vulnerable of the three brothers, during "regular, systematic, monthly abuse" between the ages of 11 and 16.

He also took indecent photographs of him on a Polaroid camera and threatened him with violence to keep him quiet.

On two occasions, he sexually assaulted him in the back row of the cinema in George Street, Oxford, during screenings of children's films.

He showed the younger brother pornographic videos when he was about 11 years old and indecently assaulted him regularly for several years, bribing him with gifts, days out and football tickets.

The abuse continued throughout Cullen's short-lived marriage in 1995.

Cullen, of Woodbine Place, Oxford, maintained his innocence throughout the trial but after hearing the verdict, Nick Syfret, defending, said Cullen was beginning to acknowledge his guilt.

The court heard that Cullen was physically and sexually abused as a child while growing up in children's homes in Ireland. Judge Julian Hall described him as a dangerous sex addict who took increasing risks to feed his addiction during a "campaign of sexual indecency".

He said: "Your addiction in my view stems in part from the way you were brought up, but it doesn't make you any less dangerous."

Cullen was sentenced to five concurrent 11-year sentences for rape and five concurrent three-year sentences for indecent assault.

Dc Steven Eaton, of the child protection unit at Cowley police station, paid tribute to Cullen's victims for their courage.

He said: "Cullen betrayed their trust and hopefully this guilty verdict will go some way to helping them recover from the pain and trauma he has caused them."

Cullen will be placed on the sex offender's register for life and is banned from working with children again.