🔗 Share this article

An individual who laced candy with sleeping medication and gave them to youngsters at a summer camp in the area has confessed to sexual crimes against two children aged between nine and ten.

The defendant was arrested after eight minors and one adult experienced illness at Stathern Lodge in mid-summer.

The senior citizen, from that region, pleaded guilty to a multiple criminal counts when he appeared at Leicester Crown Court on recently.

However, he disputed one particular crime he was facing, which was against a nine-year-old boy.

The defendant was held in detention ahead of a subsequent court date on late November.

'Treat game'

The legal representative, prosecuting, detailed the defendant's actions to the judicial body.

She said his victims were under-privileged children who were staying at a summer program which he ran.

The man played a "candy game" with the children, the legal counsel said, in which he would access the children's bedrooms when they were preparing to sleep and tell them to eat sweets "as quickly as they can".

She informed the proceedings the man had engaged in this activity with the children "repeatedly", and youngsters had earlier experienced illness the next day.

She said the man had been capable of justifying this for many years as the children being "overexcited from fun", until his stepchild had concerns in summer 2025.

The prosecutor added: "In the summer" his family member had worries about the situation, for good reason.

"They chose" to investigate in the man's possessions."

Mrs Prior KC said items including lubricant, Vaseline and injection devices were located, and his family member notified the authorities about his suspicions.

She explained Ruben went on to play the "treat game" with six children that evening - Saturday 26 July - and they were all sick the following morning.

"Authorities" had not gone out by that stage," she continued.

The regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, had stated that it was reviewing the police response of the situation.

Mrs Prior explained the minors were unable to walk properly due to being ill, so Ruben's stepson notified the police a second time.

She stated the defendant then engaged in the "candy game" in a space of five minors.