A respected businessman and family man who led a double-life as a sex beast preying on young boys in Herne Bay could have been stopped by police years earlier.

Bob Nunn, 65, the former boss of plumbing firm Anchor Plastics, was this week unmasked as a paedophile who systematically abused his victims in the 1980s and 1990s while masquerading as a pillar of the community.

But as the horrific details of his predatory reign were played out in court, it emerged both the police and Crown Prosecution Service missed opportunities to bring Nunn to justice earlier.

In 1988 he was caught by police pleasuring himself in his van and heavy petting with a teenage boy sitting next to him in his school uniform.

Staggeringly, the officer who stumbled across the sex act chose not to arrest Nunn, leaving him free to abuse that same boy for a year.

Then in 2004, another of Nunn’s victims, James Bailey, reported he had been abused as a teenager, but was told there was not enough evidence to pursue a conviction.

It was only in 2012, when the first boy, then 40, reported his abuse to police that justice finally caught up with Nunn, who was jailed for 12 years.

But Mr Bailey, who only learned of the van incident in court, says Nunn – who was famous for his Christmas lights display in Reculver Road – should never have been allowed to carry out his crimes for so long.

“I can’t get my head around how a system that’s supposed to protect you can do that. He was a policeman – he’s supposed to serve and protect. Who was he serving? Who was he protecting?" - James Bailey

He said he was disgusted at the policeman’s failure to act: “I can’t get my head around how a system that’s supposed to protect you can do that. He was a policeman – he’s supposed to serve and protect. Who was he serving? Who was he protecting?

“How can you catch a bloke doing that with a young lad and let him off? It’s disgusting.

“If he’d been properly dealt with then I might not have had to go through what I did for so long. I might have still had a childhood.”

Tragically, when Mr Bailey did pluck up the courage to report the abuse to police nine years ago, the CPS ruled there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

It was only in May 2012 that justice started to catch up with Nunn when another of his victims contacted police after watching the Panorama documentary that exposed paedophile presenter Jimmy Savile.

He was the same boy who had been in the van when Nunn was caught by the officer, but holds no grudge against the police.

Speaking about the incident, he told the Gazette: “He [the officer] did the best he could do and put a stop to it without making a big thing out of it.

“I don’t hold any grudge against the police.

“Society was a very different place then. There was widespread serious child abuse and a blind eye was turned to it. You’ve only got to look at Jimmy Savile.

“I played it down to the police at the time. I was scared of it all. I was terrified of the effects it might have.

“I didn’t say to him [the officer] ‘you must help me’.”

As she jailed Nunn for eight attacks on the two teenage boys, Judge Heather Norton described the officer’s decision not to take action against him in 1988 as “inexplicable”.

Nunn would later tell a probation officer that the incident had “acted as a wake-up call” for him not to commit further offences, but that was a lie.

Judge Norton told him “you continued to commit offences for several more years”, adding the damage he had caused his victims was “incalculable”.

Placing him on the Sex Offender’s Register for life, she added: “The sentence – no matter how long – will never make up for what you took from these boys.”

Speaking after the sentencing, DCI Andy Pritchard said: “The sexual abuse of children is a particularly abhorrent crime and the sentence imposed in this case reflects the severity of the crimes committed by Nunn.

“This case is a reflection of how the nature of policing has changed over the decades and highlights how we will thoroughly investigate historic offences when new evidence comes to light.

“In the current case the investigating officer has managed to identify previous reports, piece them together and offer a compelling case to the court.

“The victims in this case must be commended for their bravery in coming forward and I hope that the significant custodial sentence imposed will allow them some closure and help them move forward with their lives.

“Kent Police will do everything possible, even if the crimes were many years ago, to bring offenders before the courts and stop them committing these crimes against other children.”

The Crown Prosecution Service was asked to comment on the case but failed to respond.

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