FAMILIES in Ipswich were today celebrating after Edward Carson, who carried out a string of sickening crimes against kids, began his jail sentence.Parents were today feeling happier about letting their children out to the play area close to where the paedophile lived in Cherry Lane Gardens.

FAMILIES in Ipswich were today celebrating after Edward Carson, who carried out a string of sickening crimes against kids, began his jail sentence.

Parents were today feeling happier about letting their children out to the play area close to where the paedophile lived in Cherry Lane Gardens.

Carson, a former teacher at a prep school was jailed for two years yesterday after admitting sexually abusing pupils in the 1970s.

The fifty six year-old, of Cherry Lane Gardens in Ipswich, 'groomed' two 12-year-old boys at the school in Buckinghamshire and persuaded them to take part in a series of indecent acts, Aylesbury Crown Court heard.

Carson pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of buggery, eight charges of indecent assault and one count of possessing indecent photographs.

Judge Roger Connor told bearded Carson: "You still present the classic attitude of the paedophile who finds it difficult to understand the harm that his actions have done to the children whom he has abused."

The judge sentenced Carson to two years on each count of buggery, six months for each count of indecent assault and seven days for the indecent material, all to run concurrently. He will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years after his release.

Christopher Donellan, prosecuting, said Carson was employed as a science teacher at the school between 1969 and 1973, and also took part in the choir and worked with the director of music.

But in the autumn of 1972 Carson first invited his victims, who cannot be named, separately into his room near the school's dormitories, where he would undress and fondle them.

The abuse escalated and Carson assaulted both boys on separate occasions and persuaded them to carry out a sex act on him. He also took indecent photographs of the youngsters.

However the school nurse 'had her suspicions about what was going on in the room', Mr Donnellan said, and the first boy eventually told her about Carson's abuse, leading to the teacher's sacking in 1973.

But the matter was not reported to the police because the first boy's father, an old boy at the school, "was keen to preserve the school's good name," Mr Donnellan said.

The first victim made a complaint about Carson to police in October 2000 after the death of his father.

John Riley, defending, said his client should be spared jail because "over the years Martin Carson has been an extremely good teacher, and that is putting it mildly."

Between 1981 and 1992 Carson was employed at in Eastbourne as a science teacher.

Headmaster David Stephens said Carson was good at his job and he did not know about Carson's past until 1991. There was no evidence Carson abused any children there.

Judge Connor said pre-sentence reports by probation officers and the Thames Valley Sex Offender Treatment Programme said the risk of Carson reoffending was 'not insignificant' and that he showed 'minimal victim empathy'.