A sex offender who showed 'little sign of any remorse' has been spared jail after a judge took the extraordinary step of not requiring him to attend court to be sentenced.

Rodnell Baker was in his twenties when he repeatedly molested a vulnerable boy, who was just seven or eight years old, in Swindon in the early 1960s.

But since pleading guilty to what he had done when he appeared before magistrates last summer, the 76-year-old's health has deteriorated.

He has suffered a stroke, has terrible bed sores and has spent months in hospital in Swansea, where he now lives.

Now, having been told by doctors he would have to travel to court by stretcher, Judge Tim Mousley QC took the exceptional move of sentencing him in absence.

And he also said he would suspended the inevitable jail term after being told the prognosis for the defendant was not good.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the abuse took place between January 1961 and the end of 1965.

She said Baker would visit the family of the boy and repeatedly sexually abuse him until the defendant, a structural engineer, moved away to Africa.

As a result of what happened she said the victim, now a man in his late 50s, had suffered terrible problems and fears nothing will give him closure.

"He says he has had a 50 year sentence because of the effect this offending has had upon him and relationships with others," she said.

"It is to some extend tragic for him that this matter has taken so long to come to light."

Baker, who lives in Swansea, admitted a charge of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 12 in Swindon between January 1961 and the end of 1965.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said his client admitted what he had done when confronted by the police and pleaded guilty last July when he 'turned up to face the music'.

Since then he had suffered a major stroke and, though out of hospital, he is receiving high level care in his home and consented to the case going on without him.

Passing sentence the judge said "I have to sentence Rodnell Baker today who is absent for the reasons that have been described in court not only today but in previous hearings.

"The matter of sentencing has been adjourned on a number of occasions because of the state of his health. He in fact pleaded guilty in the middle of last year.

"It is clear from what I have read that the victim was a very vulnerable young boy.

"The defendant is now 76. I have to say having read the presentence report there is  very little sign of any remorse coming from the defendant for what he did to the boy all those years ago.

"In this case I satisfied that the sentence can be suspended. The extend of the defendant's health, poor health, is set out in the documents before me.

"He has recently been discharged from hospital after a long admission. His problems involved a stroke which has rendered him immobile for a considerable period of time.

"The position from the consultant dealing with him: 'I don't think there is any way Mr Baker could be managed as a standard inmate in custody'.

"He comments on getting him to court for sentencing: he would probably have to be brought on a stretcher.

"The social worker says he has four calls a day of double manned home care. He is reliant on carers for all his meals and drinking, personal care and medication

"He is incapable of doing the most menial tasks of shopping, cleaning or laundering."

He imposed a two year jail term suspended for two years meaning he must register as a sex offender for ten years.