A GO-KARTING instructor who taught youngsters at a circuit north of Dorchester has been found guilty of 15 child sex offences.

Michael Kellard, 64, was found guilty by a jury after a trial.

Kellard faced 17 child sex offences at Bournemouth Crown Court involving two young male victims dating back 20 years. He was found not guilty on two counts of rape.

The charges related to incidents which occurred from December 7, 2000, to May 2005.

Jurors found Kellard guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of rape, four counts of causing or inciting child to engage in sexual activity and five counts of indecent assault on a male person.

The court heard from two victims who said Kellard sexually assaulted them.

Kellard was a go-karting enthusiast, travelling around the country, training and driving with young go-karters.

He also ran a kart shop at the Clay Pigeon raceway, off the A37 between Dorchester and Yeovil, where he would also frequently train young racers.

The two victims both met Kellard through go-karting.

The first victim met Kellard in 2000 when he was 14 and said he would regularly stay with Kellard in a hotel room or at his house whilst travelling for go karting.

He told the jury Kellard subsidised his go-karting as part of an unspoken "deal" which would see Kellard perform sexual acts on the victim.

Kellard claimed the victim was 16 at the time when they began a "consensual relationship"

Kellard was aged 43 at the time he claimed.

He told the court he had "fallen in love" with the victim by the time they had their first sexual encounter and said he "loved the bones of him".

The victim said Kellard would stay in the same room as him and sexual activity began to escalate after the second time they stayed together until after he turned 16.

Simon Jones for the prosecution said: "Even on your own case, you say you had known him for around 15 to 16 months and spent significant amounts of time with him alone and in that time you have fallen in love.

"So from when he was 14 to 16 you have fallen in love with him, you had sexual interest with a 14-year-old boy."

The second victim met Kellard at the Clay Pigeon raceway in May 2004, when he was 13, and revealed how Kellard sexually abused him, performing oral sex on him and then made him perform oral sex on Kellard, which made him "sick".

The victim said he used to stay with Kellard when they had weekend trips away to racecourses around the UK and told the court he was sexually abused in hotels, a van, the kart shop and a flat belonging to Kellard's brother.

Kellard, whose address was given as Catalina Close in Dunkeswell, Devon, will be sentenced on Monday, December 11.