Why wasn't this monster stopped? WATCH sex predator Allan Richards' victims speak out

"Whoever made the decision not to take action against him have their own guilt to deal with," said one victim today.

As well as the anger though, there is also a sense of guilt. Certainly for victim Keith, believed to be the first victim, who suffered in silence over four decades.

"Yes, I knew there was something wrong. Your initial reaction is just to get away from it and make sure it doesn't happen again," said Keith, speaking of the sexual abuse he suffered for the first time. "I felt sort of embarrassed, ashamed, frightened. I knew it was wrong but didn't want to trouble my parents with it and felt I could deal with it myself.

"My parents had got divorced very recently at that point so I didn't want to bring more trouble to my mother's door."

Like 16 others, Keith – not his real name – was indecently assaulted by the prolific sexual predator while he was prominent Scout leader and constable with West Midlands Police.

"You start asking yourself questions: Have these things had an effect all my life?" he said.

"I have had quite serious drug issues over the years. None of my siblings have. They are all super successful individuals in their own right, I'm not. While that's probably down to my own bad decision making and my own behaviour – I do now wonder if that had more of an effect than I was aware of."

The hardest thing for Keith to deal with would only come 12 months ago when he got a call out of the blue fromWest Midlands Police's public protection unit.

The officers had found Keith's real identity on a list of boys' names at Richards home.

That list represented youngsters he had a sexual interest in and, in many cases, those he had abused over a 30 year period. Keith is the earliest known victim – and that has hit him hard.

"Certainly now I feel a guilt that I didn't say anything," he said. "Massive amounts of guilt. The hardest thing to deal with is the guilt. I did not know until the court case that I was the first victim."

He pauses. Takes a large breath. And breathes out. "I hate the word victim," he said. "If I had said something back then maybe there wouldn't have been any more victims. That bothers me greatly.

"When you view something like that as a youngster you don't ever think about it. The minute it came back, the minute I spoke to the police it became very apparent there were more victims and that this had gone on for decades. That made the guilt even worse."

Keith added: "Part of my experience is that I have worked in the social care environment. I am very aware of paedophiles and sexual abuse in society and communities and I do think that it is only recently – perhaps the only positive out of the Savile case – that people are beginning to wake up, identify and do something about it. I think it has always been there but I don't think people wanted to know or accept it.

"It used to be a standing joke in the football team not to get injured because what this person would run over and do. Now how can it be a standing joke between the football team and nobody else get that? I don't accept that. People knew.

"I think whoever investigated him or who made the decision not to take action against him have their own guilt to deal with. But it is in the past, we can't change it. What I would like to think is that procedures and investigations now take place so that these things cannot be pushed under the carpet again. Whoever the perpetrator of offences against children is, regardless of their role or responsibility, they should be identified, removed and action taken against them. And more importantly the children around them made safe.

"The reason I am speaking out is that if any young people find themselves in this position today that they have the courage to tell somebody – a parent, a grandparent, a school teacher – to have the courage to tell an adult that somebody is hurting them. It is so important.

"It won't stop what these young people have already been through but what it will stop – when it all comes out, which one day it will – is them feeling guilty like I do. The sooner they come forward, the sooner the harm stops."

Richards would target vulnerable boys from broken homes, including those in local authority care, who he came in contact with during his job. He also 'normalised' sexual encounters with Cubs and Scouts at camps, during swimming lessons, and during football games.

Some of the acts even took place at police stations. He used the force's 'Flints' computer database to check up on his victims and facilitate the abuse. Yesterday he was found guilty of indecently assaulting eight boys between 11 and 15 years old between 1982 and 2003.

It can now also be reported that earlier this year in a separate trial at Birmingham Crown Court he was convicted of more than 30 offences including rape, sexual activity with a child, gross indecency, voyeurism, and misconduct in public office relating to 17 other boys. He denied all the charges.

Keith first encountered Richards while playing in a junior football team. "He used to help the football team and run around with a bucket water and sponge," he said. "If you got yourself injured, if somebody kicked you or you twisted an ankle or something, he would amazingly appear very quickly with his sponge. But he would tend to hold you in one area and sponge you in another."

A national children's charity has condemned the actions of Allan Richards and encouraged those being sexually abused to come forward.

NSPCC spokesman Adam Burling said: "Richards used the authority he commanded from parents and children to carry out the most appalling campaign of abuse for many years.

"By denying these offences, he forced his victims to endure the ordeal of a crown court trial and relive the horrors of the abuse he inflicted upon them.

"The court heard that Richards told one of his victims that no-one would believe him. But these cases prove that abuse victims will be listened to, no matter how long ago it happened or who their abuser was. They do not need to suffer alone."

He was also later sexually assaulted at a Scout camp. Fast forward 40 years, Keith recalls: "The day the call from the police came was horrific.

"It was like someone opening up a box inside my head that hadn't been open for 40 years. I had not spoken to an ex-partner of mine about it but sort of inferred that it had happened but we never got into any detail.

"It was like being transported back to when you're eight. You go back in time and feel all the things you felt back then. You sort of put everything into a box. I think they call it compartmentalisation. Whether the box is ever sealed as you think it is though, it is hard to say."

Richards, aged 54, of Thaxted Road, Tile Cross, Birmingham, also kept diaries dating back 30 years that were retrieved from his home by detectives. In them he kept notes of 'touching' boys and other sexual encounters. He also used a code to describe where he touched the boys as well as recording their underwear.He also had more than 1,000 pictures of boys from Scout activities, including some where the youngsters were not wearing clothes.

"I was very interested to know how the police knew about me," said Keith. "I was informed that there was my name, amongst others, within a file.

"His position enabled him to both be a voyeur and have physical contact with young lads. I have had serious trust issues throughout my life – I still do – and find it difficult to have trust in a lot of different relationships and I wonder if that is part of it."

Police twice failed to take action against Richards in 2000 and 2004 following complaints over his conduct. Senior officers had long had suspicions about him and moved him into a back office job where he was meant to have no contact with the public. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has now launched an investigation into the case.

Another victim, who we are calling Danny, met Richards, who was based at Stechford Police Station, through the Scouts in the 1990s. He first met him when he was aged 11. That is when the grooming started. "He started to get friendly. He would buy me things and he started giving me lifts home and would touch my leg."

One of Richards' tactics would be to invent fake investigations, normally of a sexual nature, to approach boys. He would ask his victims to undress and perform a sex act to eliminate them from his inquiries. Sometimes this would happen at police stations – including Birmingham Central Police Station in Steelhouse Lane, just yards away from the force's Lloyd House HQ.

The same tactic was used on Danny. He said: "I was playing with some friends and he came over to me when my friends had gone and he, as a police constable, lured me into his flat and that is when the sexual assault took place.

"I knew it was wrong but I didn't want to open up to anybody as being a police constable I didn't think anybody would believe me. Not even my parents, being at such a young age."

The impact has been devastating for Danny who broke down in tears while opening up frankly about the case.

"It caused the breakdown of my marriage. I started drinking quite heavily. I feel disgusted for letting him get away for it for the period of time, I can't believe he got away with it for so long. I think it has ruined the police's reputation. It's betrayal."

Following Richards' convictions, Danny hopes his life can start afresh: "I think it will be a new chapter in my life. It will be like drawing a line in the sand."

Asked to describe Richards, Keith said: "He is a person that cannot be trusted with young people at all under any circumstances in any condition.

"I would not expect this person to be allowed out of prison again. He is not going to be rehabilitated. He is not remorseful, and I wonder whether he accepts what he has done is wrong."

But 40 years on does Keith feel any justice or closure from the case?

"It brings closure as he is not going to hurt anybody else or affect any other young person's life, but I do not think it changes anything for the people who have already had those negative experiences, and not me personally now. I found the court case quite challenging in itself and I think it says everything about the person that he put all of us through that."

First young victims not believed by police

Allan Richards' prolific sexual abuse spanned from the 1970s to as recently as 2013. And until two years ago he was sitting pretty enjoying his full police pension after 30 years service and thinking he had got away with his predatory lifestyle.

Richards used his positions of influence and responsibility to gain access to young boys. First he began helping out at a youth football side in Birmingham.

He became notorious for running on the pitch with a sponge in hand to 'treat' injured players. In the changing rooms he was said to stare at boys as they undressed and showered. He had been in the Scouts since a young age and became a leader. Again he was able to use his role to groom and exploit boys.

He 'normalised' sexual behaviour by 'parading' naked in front of scouts at swimming pools and on camps. He also partook in activities which involved the boys taking off their clothes and him striking them on the bare bottom.

He also would take advantage when the boys were on their own with him. In swimming pools he would be opportunistic and downright audacious in his attempts to corner and fondle the boys. He was also calculated and would target boys who were vulnerable – often those from broken homes or those who had no father figure.

He says in the 1970s and 80s he was 'confused' about his sexuality and struggled to get to grips with being a homosexual. He had relationships with women but admitted to the court he never had a relationship with a woman who did not have a teenage son.

As a police officer he abused his position. He was able to identify and target troubled boys – some who were in local authority care – and abuse them. He knew they were vulnerable and unlikely to be believed.

He also invented fake investigations of a sexual nature – approaching boys and getting them to perform sex acts as part of his phoney investigations.

This included an incident at Birmingham Central Police Station in Steelhouse Lane. Into the 1990s he continued to abuse boys at Scout camps and at swimming pools. But by 2000 the first complaints came in about him. Reports were made to police that he engaged in sexual activity with two boys from troubled backgrounds.

The boys were not believed. Just four years later there was another complaint after an incident at a Scout camp. Richards was kicked out of the Scouts. A police investigation found insufficient evidence but no records exist as to how prosecutors made that decision.

He was, however, moved from front line policing duties to administrative roles in the force's operations room. Here he was able to use the police computer to search for his victims. The abuse continued and he targeted young boys in parks and in the street. He retired from the police in 2011. But he continued to look at boys in the changing rooms of swimming pools to feed his sick sexual appetite for young boys. After 40 years, Allan Richards' days of deception are over. This monster faces a long time behind bars.