A 76-year-old man has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting two boys, aged nine and 10, at a summer camp in Leicestershire.
Jon Ruben, 76, was arrested in July 2025 after eight children and one adult fell ill at Stathern Lodge.
He pleaded guilty to 17 charges at Leicester crown court on Friday. They include sexual assault of a child under 13, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, eight counts of child cruelty, three counts of making indecent images of children, and four drugs charges.
Ruben, from Ruddington in Nottinghamshire, denied one of the sexual offences he was charged with against a nine-year-old boy. Prosecutors have been given two weeks to consider if they will proceed with this charge.
The prosecutor Mary Prior KC told the court that Ruben had run a holiday camp for at least 27 years and “there is a long history of children feeling sick at the camp over many years”.
She added: “For many years he has played what he calls a sweet game with the children in which he goes into the bedrooms. The game is that each has to eat really sticky sweets as quickly as they can but they must chew them.
“Children have always felt ill the next day but he explained it as they were overwrought.”
Ruben was remanded in custody until a further hearing at the same court later this month.
More details soon …
