A pensioner jailed for repeated sex attacks at a Jewish boarding school over 25 years ago deserved his 19-year sentence, senior judges have ruled.

Retired teacher Trevor Bolton, 78, was locked up for a string of sex crimes committed against boys he taught at Carmel College, in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, between the 1960s and the late 1980s.

Bolton, of Kestrel Way, Clacton-on-Sea, was convicted of 25 offences, including buggery and indecent assault, at Oxford Crown Court in October last year.

At the Appeal Court last week, Bolton's lawyers urged the three presiding judges to reduce his sentence, claiming it was far too harsh.

They argued Bolton was racked by mental and physical health problems and could be approaching 90 by the time he is set free. They said the trial judge should have taken more account of his advanced age, fragile health and otherwise good character.

Hearing the appeal, Mr Justice Knowles agreed that a 19-year sentence was "an enormous thing for a 78-year-old person in poor health to face". But the trial judge had this factor well in mind when he sentenced Bolton, he said.

"The fundamental question is whether the overall 19-year sentence for this sustained and grave offending over the course of 20 years was manifestly excessive. In our judgment it was not and we would dismiss the appeal," the judge concluded.

Bolton watched the case via live video link from his prison.

The pensioner committed his crimes as a junior housemaster at the now closed boarding school - dubbed the "Jewish Eton" - preying on eight boys aged between 11 and 15.

Victims told how he groomed them by offering comfort to homesick youngsters, styling himself a "second father".