A man once prosecuted for his illegal hoard of nearly 500 wild birds’ eggs kept another collection in a “memory box” inside a bedside drawer – vile mementoes of his paedophile past.

Allan Malcolm Dyche, 67, of Peel Street, Abergele, North Wales, was jailed for 23 years at Caernarfon crown court after a jury convicted him of 18 historic sex charges including rape.

Prosecuting counsel Anna Pope said in 2017 police went to arrest Dyche, a “hoarder,” and found the box which she called a “key piece” of evidence. DNA of intimate hair matched a victim.

Judge Huw Rees told Dyche, who showed no emotion as he was sentenced :”Your overwhelming perversion is illustrated by that box of items. It’s evidence of your deep perverted interest.”

He’d kept items as mementoes. But he had “ruined” the life of one victim and the second had said :”I can never see my life being the same again.”

The judge made sexual harm prevention and restraining orders and Dyche must register as a sex offender for life.

The main target of his perverted sexual demands had been too scared to speak out. “I always had to hide a secret. I wanted to die inside,” the victim said in an impact statement read by the prosecutor. “I have wanted to speak out for many years. How could I stay quiet about what happened to me?

“I will always have painful, unhappy memories.”

The forensic evidence of the hair “makes me feel sick to the core,” Dyche’s victim added.

Owen Edwards, defending, said after the jury’s verdicts were announced :”The defendant is well aware that he now faces a sentence to be measured in many years.”

Mr Edwards said :”At the age of 67 and with ailments that are simply based on that age, this sentence will be a difficult sentence for Mr Dyche to embark upon.”

The barrister added that Dyche’s character “masks at least a decade of appalling behaviour.”