TERRITORIAL Army soldier Colin May committed a lurid sex act on a five-year-old boy before telling him to keep the incident a secret.

May, who has served with the British Army in Kosovo and Bosnia, told police officers he saw 'nothing wrong' in the assault on the young boy at a house in Westbury.

May, who has already served a 12-month prison sentence for two indecent assaults and an act of gross indecency on a 14-year-old girl, will be sentenced by a crown court judge after admitting two sex charges on the boy at a magistrates' court hearing in Trowbridge.

The 49-year-old, of Beech Grove, Westbury, committed the sex acts on the boy while they lay together naked in a double bed.

The dark secret only became public when the five-year-old boy told an adult friend.

Prosecutor Lynn Swain said May was displaying typical "paedophile grooming tactics" in a bid to make his young victim keep quiet.

She said: "This is grooming. Children are told this from a young age and they accept this as fact.

"This is why sometimes children are abused when they are much older and still don't tell anybody."

In a video interview with trained detectives the victim described how May touched him telling him there was nothing to feel bad about.

During his interview May made a full confession to police officers telling them the incident was sparked when he started generating "erotic thoughts".

Mrs Swain said the substantial age difference, the grooming tactics and the vulnerability of the victim made the case worse.

She said: "There is already the paedophile past as far as Mr May is concerned and clearly this child was at risk and other children may be at risk of further offending."

Defence solicitor John Elliott said there was no evidence to suggest May had been abusing the boy over a period of time or had kept his previous child sex abuse conviction a secret from people, including the victim's mother.

Mr Elliott said May, who works as an agency HGV driver, now realises he should not have got into bed with the boy.

"He feels he may have gone too far. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. He denies making any threats of violence," Mr Elliott said.

May, who admitted charges of gross indecency and indecent assault at the hearing on Thursday, will be sentenced by a judge at Swindon Crown Court. Magistrates decided their maximum powers of six-months imprisonment were too lenient to deal with the crime.

Charges of gross indecency with children can carry a sentence of up to ten years.