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A climbing instructor who abseiled holding the torch has been jailed for five years for sexually abusing girls at his adventure activities centre. Alan Ellinson, then in his 50s, repeatedly exposed himself to pupils during lessons and duped them into touching his genitals by asking them to reach inside his shorts' pockets for sweets.

The offending occurred when Ellinson was helping girls aged between 10 and 12 scale indoor and outdoor walls at his club, the Rope Race Climbing Centre in Marple, near Stockport, which he ran with his wife for 30 years. At 's Minshull Street Crown Court, Ellinson, now 68, was convicted of three charges of exposure and allegations of inciting sexual activity with a child under 13. His climbing centre, which he founded in 1993, closed in 2023.

Jailing him, Judge Mark Savill said: "I regret to say today, your fall from grace is complete.

"This sexual offending was committed over a significant period of time against a number of young victims, and your behaviour has had a lasting impact on them.

"To behave in the way you did amounted to a breach of trust. As a matter of fact, you were the manager and owner as well as the teacher, and as a result of that, parents placed their children's health and safety into your hands and your care. In my view, you exploited your position as a teacher with access to children."

The offending took place between 2013 and 2018, when parents entrusted Ellinson with teaching their children to climb up and abseil down various rock walls at his complex on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings.

Prosecutor Adam Lodge said: "Parents would generally wait in a café that partially overlooked the climbing area, which was split into several sections around the building.

"It became known that the defendant would keep Haribo sweets in his pocket, and it became a bit of a thing whereby he would allow or encourage children to reach into his pocket to retrieve the sweets.

"At the time, they did not think too much of this, it was for some a bit of a treat to get sweets that they may not have had at home.

"But what all the victims describe is that on occasion they would find something other than sweets or no sweets at all. They would feel with their hands something they describe as 'squidgy'.

"To an adult, it would be obvious what this was, and would be deeply unsettling, but to their young minds, they did not appreciate what was really happening.

"Three of the girls also recall seeing the defendant's penis poking out of the top of the shorts or trousers he was wearing.

"It is a common feature of the evidence that as the defendant reached up, ostensibly to arrange a rope, his t-shirt or top would ride up resulting in his penis becoming visible.

"At the time, they put this down to a possible wardrobe malfunction but as the years have passed and as their minds have matured and they have gained greater experience of life they have all come to realise that this was no accident.

"For this it to have happened so often and in front of so many people it was clearly no accident but deliberate and repeated behaviour."

In 2012, Ellison abseiled with the Olympic flame down the iconic Dock Tower in Grimsby at the start of day 40 of the torch relay.

But in 2019, he stood trial for flashing offences against other girls but was cleared, and in his evidence, he claimed he wore a harness during lessons, which would have made it 'impossible' for him to expose himself.

However in 2021 one former pupil contacted another to ask if she recalled going to Ellison's centre and her immediate response was to refer to Ellinson getting them to put their hands in his pockets and "flashing his penis".

One told her mother, who contacted the NSPCC, and the police were informed.

When re-interviewed, Ellinson, of Poynton, Cheshire, denied exposing himself and said he did not remember giving sweets to the children as these were available in the club shop.

During his interview, he accused the girls of being "vindictive and feral" and even said he "hated his job". Prosecutors said he flashed at his victims to "get a buzz."

Vanessa Thomson, defending, said her client continued to protest his innocence and added: "This is not a case of complainants being left alone in the defendant's care with no parents around.

"In fact, the parents were encouraged to stay, and there was a glass window so they could see what was going on. There were also other adult instructors and parents on the climbing floor centre."

Ellinson was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 10 years.

Afterwards, Detective Constable Lucy Williams, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Ellinson was a trusted climbing instructor who taught children of families around the area, and he abused his position of trust.

"He is now where he belongs, in jail, and I hope victims and families feel more reassured now he has been removed from the streets."