Tag Archives: Fort Augustus

Christ’s Hospital School – three former members of staff arrested for sex abuse against 9 pupils at the school. Some students from CH sent to convicted paedophile Bishop Peter Ball

Former Christ’s Hospital master Peter Webb abused schoolboy

Sept 9, 2020

 

A PAEDOPHILE teacher who abused boys at an exclusive boarding school has been jailed for a third time, days before he was due to be released from prison.

Former Christ’s Hospital master Peter Webb would have been freed on Friday after finishing a five-and-a-half year sentence for abusing boys at the school.

He was jailed for another 12 months after a judge told him he still sounded like a true paedophile.

Her Honour Judge Christine Laing QC told Webb he would be going back to prison rather than being released after a two day trial at Hove.

His victims started to come forward after Operation Yew Tree exposed celebrity sex crimes.

He was asked to leave Christ’s Hospital after a boy complained of abuse in 1984.

Hove Trial Centre heard he was jailed for 18 months in 2015 after admitting three offences against the same 11-year-old boy.

He was jailed again for four years in 2017 after the same court heard he abused four more boys.

This sentence was increased to five years and six months after it was referred to the High Court as an unduly lenient sentence.

Webb was one of five former male members of staff charged with abusing children at the school.

Chaplain Gary Dobbie was jailed for 12 years for abusing nine pupils across three decades.

Sports coach Ajaz Karim, was jailed for 10 years after assaulting six girls between 1985 and 1993.

James Andrew Husband was jailed for 17 years for raping and indecently assaulting a girl as young as 14 between 1990 and 1994.

Peter Burr admitted indecently assaulting pupils at the school between the 1960s and 1980s and was also jailed.

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18709461.christs-hospital-master-peter-webb-abused-schoolboy/

Christ’s Hospital School teacher guilty of indecently assaulting pupil

4 July 2019

A former teacher at a boarding school has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a pupil 43 years ago.

Roger Martin denied sexually abusing the boy, 10, at Christ’s Hospital School, in Horsham, West Sussex, between September and December 1976.

Martin, 83, from Great Dunham, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, was jailed for four years following a trial at Hove Crown Court.

He was told he would be on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-48869824

Christ’s Hospital School chaplain jailed over vile abuse of nine pupils across three decades

Gary Dobbie was found guilty last month of four counts of indecent assault against a boy between 1986 and 1991

12 JUN 2019

The chaplain of a top private school has been jailed for 12 years for abusing nine pupils across three decades.

Gary Dobbie was found guilty last month of four counts of indecent assault against a boy between 1986 and 1991, having already been convicted last year of abusing eight other pupils.

The 67-year-old was a teacher and chaplain at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex when the assaults took place.

He was sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Wednesday to 12 years in jail for all 19 offences, a court official said.

He is one of five ex-teachers convicted after police investigated complaints spanning 30 years by 22 of the school’s former students.

For the latest on trials and court cases from across Birmingham and the West Midlands, join BirminghamLive’s Court Facebook group .

Following the sentencing current headmaster Simon Reid said: “It is hard to find the right words to express the depth of our sadness and dismay, as a school community, at the dreadfulness of this situation.

“We are deeply sorry that the school failed to protect the victims of these offences and those others who were entrusted to our care during what should have been happy and settled years.

“Our apology to them is heartfelt and we hope that this conviction, the culmination of what must have been a very difficult experience in the criminal justice process, will bring some measure of comfort.

“The school today is a very different place, one in which the safety, happiness and wellbeing of our pupils is at the centre of all we do.

“Close links with local statutory agencies help ensure that our practices and decision-making are compliant, effective and open.”

In the latest trial, Dobbie’s victim told jurors it was “habitual” for him to be groped during night visits to his on-site lodgings while he was given wine and once fed smoked oysters.

Dobbie preferred to smoke cigars but would buy Turkish cigarettes for his pupil and also assaulted the boy during two school trips, at one point drunkenly lunging at him in a violent and sexual manner.

Describing him as “a very civilised man” who loved indulging in the grandeur of high church traditions, the man said the whole school would attend Dobbie’s services in the chapel four or five times a week.

He told how visiting Dobbie was an “escape” from being bullied.

But he was shown little sympathy and instead groped under his school shirt while they sat alone on a sofa.

The married father, who still battles with urges to suppress the traumatic memories, said when he confided in a fellow teacher at the school he was told to “get over it and move on”.

Dobbie was arrested while teaching at independent Shrewsbury School, Shropshire, where he worked after leaving Christ’s Hospital. He then moved to France after living in Hereford.

He was found guilty last year of 15 charges detailing multiple offences against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001.

He had denied 12 counts of indecently assaulting four boys and two girls, attempting to indecently assault a boy and two counts of indecency with a child.

Sports coach Ajaz Karim, was jailed in August for 10 years after assaulting six girls between 1985 and 1993.

In July, James Husband, also known by his middle name of Andrew, was jailed for 17 years for raping and indecently assaulting a girl as young as 14 between 1990 and 1994.

Peter Webb and Peter Burr admitted indecently assaulting pupils at the school between the 1960s and 1980s and were also jailed.

Christ’s Hospital is one of the oldest boarding schools in the country, dating back to the 16th century, and the Queen is a patron.

Pupils still wear a Tudor-style uniform of a long blue coat and high yellow socks with boarders charged fees of up to £31,500 a year.

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, are counted among its famous alumni.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/christs-hospital-school-chaplain-jailed-16420693


Christ’s Hospital ex-teacher Gary Dobbie guilty of abuse

3 MAY 2019

Dobbie will be sentenced on all counts on 12 June.

‘Extravagant’ chaplain, 67, at £35,000-a-year private boarding school ‘plied pupil with oysters, Turkish cigarettes and fine wines then molested him as pair watched Morse on TV

  • Gary Dobbie is accused of molesting one of his pupils between 1986 and 1991 
  • The pupil was being bullied and had turned to the chaplain for support 
  • But at parties and on one-on-one visits he would touch him, court was told  

23 Apr 2019

The chaplain at a £35,000-a-year private boarding school is accused of plying a pupil with smoked oysters, Turkish cigarettes and fine wines and molesting him.

Gary Dobbie, 67, assaulted the young boy over a five-year period between 1986 and 1991 when he worked as a chaplain and teacher at the prestigious Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex, his trial heard.

He would invite the alleged victim to lavish dinner parties at his on-site lodgings but also had him over when it was just the two of them, when they would sit in the dark and watch Inspector Morse, Hove Crown Court was told.

It was during these visits the chaplain allegedly molested the boy.

His trial was told Dobbie was an ‘extravagant’ chaplain who liked to dress up in full ecclesiastical robes in church and burn incense in the school chapel.

Opening the case Abigail Husbands, prosecuting, said: ‘He was treated to food and alcohol while at Mr Dobbie’s and offered smoked oysters, Turkish cigarettes and good wine.’

During these visits the court heard Dobbie would molest the pupil, pushing his hands down the front of his shirt and rubbing his chest and back. He would also swing him onto his lap and grope him, she told the court.

Christ’s Hospital is one of the oldest boarding schools in the country, dating back to the 16th century when it was founded in London by King Edward VI, who signed a Royal Charter for it just 11 days before his death in 1553.

Famous alumni include poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Barnes Wallis – the inventor of the bouncing bomb.

Miss Husbands said the pupil in question had suffered a difficult time at the school and had been repeatedly bullied by his peers.

She said he turned to Dobbie for refuge and had become close to him.

But the jury was told the visits were ‘not all innocent’ and on ‘many, many times’ Dobbie had molested the boy at his home.

On one occasion the pupil went on a reading trip with him where Dobbie allegedly got drunk before violently manhandling him and pushing his hand down his shirt.

He was also assaulted on another school trip, the court was told.

The victim left Christ’s Hospital School after completing his A levels and went on to university.

The court heard he put the matter behind him and continued with his life but was contacted by police last year and was later interviewed by them in relation to the chaplain’s behaviour.

Dobbie was later arrested and charged with three counts of indecent assault relating to multiple offences between 1986 and 1991.

The case, which is expected to last more than a week, continues.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6950745/Gary-Dobbie-chaplain-Christs-Hospital-School-Horsham-court-child-sex-abuse.html

Former school chaplain to face trial over sex allegations

A top private school’s former chaplain will stand trial facing allegations he sexually abused one of his teenage pupils.

Gary Dobbie

Gary Dobbie is accused of assaulting the young boy on several occasions while he was a teacher at Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex.

The 67-year-old, who was a head of house at one point and lived in the school grounds, denies three charges of indecent assault between 1986 and 1991.

Now living in Albi, France, after having previously lived in Hereford, he is set to stand trial in April, Sussex Police said.

Prosecutors decided not to proceed with allegations made against him by another of the school’s former pupils, a police spokesman said.

Before his arrest, Dobbie was teaching at Shrewsbury School.

The Queen is a patron of the site, now based in Horsham.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2019/01/03/former-school-chaplain-to-face-trail-over-sex-allegations/

Rapist teacher fails in bid to reduce sentence

A FORMER teacher at a prestigious boarding school who was jailed for the abuse of a vulnerable pupil deserved every day of his term, top judges ruled yesterday.

Manipulative James Andrew Husband, 68, used his position at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, to groom the teenager for sex.

She was already vulnerable when he came to know her, a court heard, but acted in “gross breach of trust” to abuse her.

The crimes came to light many years later and in July this year, Husband was jailed for 17 years for rape and five indecent assaults. The married father, most recently of Wigginton Road, York, had denied the offences, claiming sex with the girl was consensual.

Yesterday he appealed against his sentence, but was told by three senior judges that 17 years was fully deserved.

Lord Justice Lindblom told the court the girl had taken Husband’s attention as “kindness”, but ultimately came to hate what he was doing. The abuse left her with lifelong “severe psychological harm”, as she has struggled to cope with her ordeal. She did not get the university place she wanted and has been unable to form meaningful relationships with men.

In her statement to Hove Crown Court in July, the victim, now an adult, described Husband’s conduct as “devious and manipulative”.

Dismissing his appeal against the sentence, Lord Justice Lindblom said the offending had involved a “significant degree of planning”.

“This was offending against a vulnerable child, involving a serious breach of trust,” he told London’s Court of Appeal.

“He had apparently shown no insight into his offending and expressed no remorse.We accept that it was a severe sentence to pass on a man of his age and of previous good character. But we are not persuaded that it was arguably manifestly excessive.”

The appeal was dismissed.

During his trial at Hove the court heard Husband told the girl: “It’s OK, I’ve had a vasectomy,” before raping her.

Husband was the fifth Christ’s Hospital School teacher to be convicted of sexually abusing students.

Over the five cases, the sexual abuse at the school spanned more than 30 years and involved 22 victims.

Judge Christine Henson, who placed Husband on the sex offenders register for life, said the victim had given “harrowing” evidence during the trial.

The judge told him: “You put yourself in the position of her mentor in order to make her feel special and dependent on you so you could do what you wanted sexually with her. She viewed you as a father figure, thus rendering the abuse of trust particularly acute.”

In her victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said: “The grooming process was devious and malignant. By making me feel special for the first time in my life I became dependent on him for my own feeling of self worth.”

She said Husband moulded her into his “plaything” and “puppet” so “he could do what he wanted to me”.

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17259103.rapist-teacher-fails-in-bid-to-reduce-sentence/


Christ’s Hospital School has now had to deal with some 24 pupils (two pending sentencing), 32 years, over 70 counts (charges) by six masters. This is a total disgrace.

a clear case of ‘gross negligence’ by the school authorities, as well as gross abuse against ‘children entrusted to the care of Christ’s Hospital School who came from vulnerable backgrounds’.

link

Roger Martin, a former teacher at the School, appeared today at Lewes Crown Court. Mr Martin entered a not guilty plea and was released on unconditional bail until his trial date on 11th March 2019 when he will appear at Lewes Crown Court.

https://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/christshospital-live/assets/File/Headmaster%27s%20Statement%20to%20Old%20Blues%2015%20August%202018.pdf

 

15 Aug 2018

Roger Martin T20180412

Hove Trial Centre Crown Court :

http://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/Lewes-Crown-Court.php

Gary Dobbie T20170536 back in court 4 Sept 2018


. ..know that the recent 5 convictions are not the only CH (or ex-CH) teachers to have been convicted of serious offences:

Peter Brownlie, Ian Rowley, Hudson.

What I would like to see is an independent investigation or enquiry, run or chaired by someone with little or no connection to CH to fully look …

Ian Rowley (Staff 85-89)

his appointment as academic director of St Edward’s School, Oxford

http://trongon.blogspot.com/2011/03/

Former teacher, Ian Rowley, at prestigious private school ‘inappropriately touched’ pupil

A FORMER teacher is now on the Sex Offenders Register after he admitted ‘inappropriately touching’ one of his private school pupils.

Ian Rowley was sentenced at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of engaging in sexual activity with a boy.

Thames Valley Police said that in 2014, Oxford resident Rowley, 55, had ‘inappropriately touched’ a schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

His victim was one of his pupils at St Edward’s School in North Oxford; a prestigious boarding school also known as Teddies, where he taught for more than 20 years.

Rowley started working at the school in 1994 but left in July last year, vacating his most recent role as a French teacher.

Rowley, of Cherwell Street in St Clement’s, was handed a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £115 victim surcharge.

Investigating officer detective constable Holly Wood, of Thames Valley Police’s child abuse unit, said: “I am pleased that the defendant pleaded guilty to this offence, thereby sparing the victim from giving evidence.

“I would also like to praise the bravery of the victim in coming forward and throughout this process, which I know has been extremely distressing for him and his family.”

Magistrates also agreed Rowley, who was charged on February 28, must participate in a sex offenders’ treatment programme for 63 days.

He will be listed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

Detective constable Wood added: “I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of this type of offence to report it to police by calling 101.

“You will be listened to, we will fully support you, and we will look to secure convictions wherever possible.”

St Edward’s School is based in Woodstock Road, Summertown and offers boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 13-18 years-old.

The school’s warden Stephen Jones said: “The wellbeing of the pupils in our care is our highest priority.

“We notified the appropriate external authorities as soon as we became aware of the allegation against Ian Rowley, and we have co-operated fully throughout the investigation that led to this sentence.

“We take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. This matter was brought to light via the school’s well-established speak-up culture, which is well understood by all pupils and staff.

“The Independent Schools Inspectorate recently reviewed our safeguarding procedures and judged them to be robust, and these policies are subject to regular review to ensure the highest standards are upheld.”

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15240613.Former_teacher_at_prestigious_private_school__inappropriately_touched__pupil/

Keith Hudson

Keith Hudson

A man convicted of possessing indecent images of young boys masturbating was cleared in 2001 by then Education Secretary Estelle Morris to work in all-girl schools.

In proceedings summarised on the internet, the tribunal heard medical evidence that science teacher Keith Hudson’s interest in young boys was “homosexual, paedophilic and inappropriate”, but that Ms Morris’s decision was justified because he had “no interest in girls”.

The tribunal, which was told that Ms Morris had imposed “the least onerous restrictions available to her”, backed her decision.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/men-were-cleared-to-work-in-school-1-2143733

The Paedophile Who Touts Himself as a Private Tutor

January 16, 2006

A CONVICTED paedophile banned from teaching male pupils is tutoring boys as young as nine in his home.

Keith Hudson’s decision to set up his own business as a private tutor prompted a headmistress to warn parents their children could be in danger.

But four years later he is still tutoring several youngsters, often unsupervised, every week.

Hudson, 52, from Crowborough, East Sussex, was arrested in 1996 over the importation of indecent and obscene magazines showing boys aged seven to 18.

He was convicted of five charges of possessing such material in 1998.

In 2001, Estelle Morris, then Education Secretary, placed him on List 99 of those barred or restricted from teaching.

He was allowed to continue teaching girls after medical evidence indicated that while his feelings towards boys were ‘homosexual, paedophilic and inappropriate’, he had ‘no interest in girls’.

But instead the self-confessed naturist, who lives alone, set up as a private teacher, renting a room in a business centre in wr, for lessons or inviting pupils to his detached [pounds sterling]300,000 home in a quiet cul-de-sac.

Last night, neighbours said most of Hudson’s pupils were boys, and ‘that only very few had been girls over the last few years’.

A neighbour said: ‘A few years ago I heard he was hanging around local schools trying to get business and a letter went out warning parents about him.’ Yesterday, Hudson, who was on the Sex Offenders Register until February 2003, claimed he was not a danger to children.

But in 2002, teachers in East Sussex used him as an example when warning parents about the risks of using private tutors.

Jenni Miller, headmistress of Roselands Infant School in Eastbourne, wrote to parents saying: ‘Our attention has been drawn to the fact parents have been approached by private tutors offering specialist tuition who are not of an acceptable professional standard and whose motivation for wanting to be a tutor might be dangerous to young people.

‘One such organisation about which we have concerns is The Sussex Learning Centre, which has Keith Hudson as principal tutor.

‘I have taken the exceptional step of writing to you because I believe the situation is sufficiently serious.’ At the time, Sussex police said they were ‘trying to close’ the legal loophole which allowed Hudson to set up as a tutor.

Neighbours said the children visiting his home were ‘nine or ten’, although some were old enough to drive.

One said: He has lived here for around 20 years on his own and hardly has any visitors other than the children.

‘But when he was still teaching in schools he used to have boys there for the weekend.

He has also had boys round to help with gardening. I’m not happy about it at all as most parents just come and drop their children off and are none the wiser about his past.

Hopefully it will now be out in the open and they will think twice.’

Hudson qualified as a teacher in 1973 and taught science and information technology in various schools until his arrest in 1996.

Yesterday he confirmed he was teaching as a private tutor. ‘Over the years I have enjoyed the support of many parents and I am grateful for that support,’ he said.

‘When I was assessed by a specialist medical advisor for the Secretary Of State For Education, her firm recommendation was that I should be allowed to continue with my tutoring business. I know that I am not any kind of danger to children.’

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-140929779/the-paedophile-who-touts-himself-as-a-private-tutor

Mr Hudson, who runs learning centres in the Eastbourne and Haywards Heath areas.

https://www.tes.com/news/parents-warned-tutor-sex-offence-record

Keith Hudson – Haywards Heath Learning Centre · Syresham

https://leadquest.co.uk/mr+keith+hudson_haywards-heath-learning-centre_3I-gb

 

7 Mar 2006 : Column 1441W—continued

Keith Hudson

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the individuals and organisations consulted in helping her reach a decision in the case of the Keith Hudson List 99 determination. [43406]

 

7 Mar 2006 : Column 1442W
Ruth Kelly: Representatives from the following organisations were consulted in reaching a decision:

More House school

Surrey Social Services Department

National Identification Service, New Scotland Yard

Croydon Law Courts

HM Customs and Excise

Lewes Crown court

East Sussex county council

The Care Standards Tribunal

Sussex police

A consultant Forensic Psychiatrist

The Department does not release the names of individuals who supply information or evidence.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060307/text/60307w56.htm

 


Hudson, who you asked about, the “naturist” paed who killed himself in Holland to avoid extradition, was my 2nd form physics teacher and assistant housemaster. It was pretty clear even to the youngest naïf that there was something off about him

 

…most years it was JDS, Torkington, Goodall (at least for a couple of years), 3 or 4 Old Blues who had been in Scouts and would have been Undergraduate Age, and I think Dobbie went on at least one (he also went on the Lake District Trip with the Scouts in December 85, my UF,

Everyone heard the rumours about the Norfolk Broads trips

I went on a number of Broads trips, including one with a boat run by Dobbie – nothing ever happened…

Webb and Burr did turn up on summer camp staying on Burr’s boat next to the campsite, but I was never on the Broads with them.

Were there any mentions in the Blue in Summer 1996 of Dobbie leaving? Or did he quietly disappear?

I don’t think he left in 1996, I thought he became housemaster in 1993, was demoted in 1996 and went to Shrewsbury in 2003. He was still in close contact with several teachers after his departure

Gary Dobbie, pictured when he was Shrewsbury School’s chaplain, sexually abused students at Christ’s Hospital School

I’ve dug out my old stack of The Blue. Dobbie writes about stepping down as senior chaplain to focus on duties as a housemaster a few terms before it happens.

Going back further to 1994 this sentence in the Mid A house notes made me feel sick in light of the revelations during his trial:
“GWD cooked for the house monitors and invited guests, much fun had by all”.

…my ire for Poulton, Cairncross and Sillett who in the face of awful actions were awfully inactive.

Why was he demoted in 1993 to Assistant Chaplain, being replaced by A. Mitra?

…a copy of the letter sent to the Parents of those in Webb’s house when he left, including mine, which talks of his exemplary 18 years of service, and his need to leave the school on medical advice from stress brought on by the school reorganisation in preparation for the merger, including the moving of his boarding house. No mention of anything untoward.

The letter Craig refers to is a remarkable document. The school told parents a complete pack of lies. There is no other way to put it.

This isn’t going to get better for the school.

This thread confirms that there has been a long-standing policy of management cover-up of well-documented child abuse and this provides data including many strange practices for the “Four Eyes” proposal for a Truth & Reconciliation Inquiry “Way Ahead”
I simply cannot comprehend how the school could decide to bury Webb’s previous conviction rather than realise there would inevitably be other victims. There was a clear choice: protect the school, or be part of the solution. This was 2015 for goodness sake, three years ago, not the Middle Ages. I was a Donation Governor at the time; and I was never told a single word. Furious doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Had the school circulated details of Webb’s conviction and the police investigation more widely, I believe that more people would have come forward.

The first I knew about any of it was when the first four of the filthy five were charged.

One of the real disgraces is that the school was not honest with parents and so many pupils, both at CH and other schools, were left at risk.

I was a pupil at the school when Burr was moved on. Not a word was said to parents about him interfering with the pupils. The same happened with Webb. Not only was he moved on, but parents were told anything but the truth.

It is very suspicious that he was at CH for a short time, left under mysterious circumstances and then this happened in Wales later on.There are at least three (and possibly a lot more) separate newspaper reports that suggest a pattern in which offenders were quietly moved on with positive references, which is very disturbing. The pattern seems to suggest that CH administration consistently went out of their way to ensure that these people remained employed as teachers. It almost seems as if this was the official (but unwritten) policy. Why?

Dobbie was found guilty of 15 counts involving offences against six boys and two girls

It looks like CH was reckless about the plight of future victims and it is likely the subsequent employers of Karim and Dobbie would have relied on references from CH. It was said in court that Karim was given references by CH. Unless those two face charges for activities after they left CH we may never know any further detail.

It seems to be a criminal offence not to inform the police of a possible terrorist act yet it is not an offence to endanger minors by concealing knowledge of actual crimes such as these, let alone suspicions. I cannot understand why.

On one occasion, probably in 1978 or 1979, the entire dining hall united in a chant of ‘Pedo!, Pedo!, Pedo!, Pedo!, …’ while Peter Webb attempted to officiate at tea. This was extremely loud with a lot of shouting, banging of cutlery on tables, etc. with many hundreds of boys carrying out the chant. Peter Webb fled from the dining hall after a few minutes, and Mr. Fry arrived a few minutes later to restore order (which took Fry just a few gavel bangs). Too many boys were involved for punishments to be handed out. Peter Webb did not officiate in the dining hall any further following that event – although Webb continued at the school. So, as his duties were changed post-event, someone in authority must have known why this change in responsibility occurred and there might well be written documentation of this. For example, the Blue Book lists responsibilities for each master and Webb’s responsibilities were changed following this event.

Yet he remained at the school for another 4 or 5 years. Then he enjoyed a further 30 years at liberty before a feeble judge gave him a lenient sentence partly because he might otherwise die in prison.

And yet within 2 years (according to the transcript of the Sentencing Appeal hearing) in 1980 Webb was promoted to Housemaster.

Staggering!

……

What with all this talk of ‘the school knew, but did nothing’, my thoughts have turned to a bearded house-tutor who in the second half of the 1970s doubled as the c/o of the then-new Navy limb of the CCF. Whatever awful thing it was he did, he was expelled from the school staff post-haste, leaving a bad smell behind him. His name escapes me, but I believe he was only at CH for a couple of years. Surely I can’t be the only person who remembers him?

…of course the inconsistency which saw him removed in such short order while Webb and Burr were allowed to carry on, and on, and on

According to the 1976-1977 Blue Book, the CCF Naval Section was the responsibility of Lt. R.C. Durrant.

If you google R.C. Durrant you find that a teacher by that name, who taught at Christ’s Hospital, was found not-guilty in Wales in 2008, see:

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- … ex-2810551

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- … ex-2811014

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5140&hilit=goodall&start=60

Poulton, Cairncross and Sillet

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=5209&start=45

McCall

 

However, I distinctly remember you called a house meeting I am guesssing like in 1993, and you explained to us that our Maths teacher Mr *****, was being marched off the because he had tried to lure a boy up into his flat. I was in the unnamed teachers set for maths (set 6 or 5 I believe) so I remember it well.

McCall got booted for luring boys up to his flat in 93? He’d been doing that for at least a decade prior and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid. I wonder what changed….

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=5209&start=165

Peter Phillip De Wharton Burr

Paedophile teacher has his sentence increased by top judges

Peter Burr abused boys at a prestigious school – and will spend an extra two years in jail

29 MAR 2018

A paedophile teacher who abused four young boys over four decades ago has had his “unduly lenient” jail term increased by top judges.

Peter Phillip De Wharton Burr, 73, of The Square, Kingswear, was a house tutor and physics teacher at a top boarding school.

He was jailed for four years in January after four former pupils came forward to say he had groped them in the 1960s and 1970s.

Burr pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” for what he had done at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, Sussex.

His punishment, however, was viewed as far too soft by the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC, who referred the case for top judges to look at again.

At London’s Appeal Court, Lord Justice Davis agreed he had got off too lightly – and upped his jail term to six years seven months.

The court heard Burr was well known at the school for his creepy sexualised behaviour towards the boys in his charge.

He would stalk the changing rooms and showers leering at boys in the nude or getting changed.

One of the victims was groped as he changed for PE and others were subjected to more serious sex attacks in his private study.

Three of the victims described having long-term psychological damage due to what happened to them.

One said he had been left with “a hole in his heart” and another said his childhood had been “ruined.”

All the victims had been chosen because they were “particularly vulnerable” boys.

Lawyers for Burr admitted the sentence of four years was “merciful” but pleaded with the judges not to increase it.

He had committed his crimes when aged in his 20s and had l left the school in the mid 1970s.

Burr had “acknowledged that what he did was appalling” and felt deep “shame” the court was told.

However, Lord Justice Davis, sitting with two other judges, ruled that the four-year term had to be increased, despite his “powerful personal mitigation.”

“It is always open to a judge to show mercy, but still our conclusion has to be that this sentence was unduly lenient,” he concluded.

Burr was caught after a victim revealed his ordeal to Vanessa Feltz’s radio show after claiming he was initially ignored by police.

One of the victims tried to report the crimes to officers at Horsham Police Station in 2000 but felt he was being “batted back” and no further action was taken, prosecutor Ahmed Hossain said.

It was not until December 3, 2016 that the victim was prompted to email the producer of Feltz’s BBC Radio London programme when she discussed the football abuse scandal.

The producer put him in touch with detectives and an investigation was launched after he made contact with police in February last year.

Burr was the West Sussex school’s second former teacher to be jailed in as many months in separate prosecutions.

Judge Christine Henson said he had demonstrated a “gross abuse of trust” and preyed on vulnerable boys who were reluctant to speak out after they had been given a place at the school because a parent had died or their family had a low income.

Burr invited pupils to visit his study for tea and cake and to watch television before fondling them.

One victim described how Burr enticed them with chocolate biscuits

The house tutor and physics teacher, who was responsible for patrolling bathrooms and dormitories, also became sexually aroused when he played with boys in the swimming pool, Mr Hossain said.

Christ’s Hospital head teacher Simon Reid said: “The victim testimony could have left no-one in any doubt as to the devastating and lasting impact of (Burr’s) actions.

“While these offences date back to the period 1969-73, and the school now provides the safest possible environment for its students, we will not shy away from continuing to challenge ourselves on every aspect of child protection.

“The thoughts of everyone at Christ’s Hospital school are very much with the victims in this case.”

Founded in the 16th century, the school charges boarders up to £31,500 a year and counts Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge as alumni.

Pupils still wear a Tudor-style uniform consisting of a long blue coat and high yellow socks.

One of the victims described the school at the time of Burr’s offences as having a “culture of corporal punishment” where pupils were told they were privileged to be attending, Mr Hossain said.

In a victim impact statement, one of the men, who was sent to Christ’s Hospital for free after his father died, said: “No matter how miserable the school made me, I believed it was my duty to go there and support my mother.

“Six times a day the pupils were told they ought to be thankful.

“There was no-one to turn to and no privacy.

“I learned that I had no rights and no status.

“There was no Harry Potter magic at Christ’s Hospital.”

He said he has struggled to maintain relationships and appears withdrawn, distant and arrogant as he tries to hide his past.

He added: “(Burr) could have been a good man and a decent teacher but instead he sat there like a stain and stole my childhood.”

Another victim said he felt confined to a life of celibacy as a result of Burr’s actions.

A third victim said he was not traumatised by the moment he had to forcefully push away Burr’s advances.

He said they had remained friends as he grew older and he was surprised to be considered a victim.

Burr, who arrived late to the hearing, was initially sentenced to three and a half years, but Judge Henson increased the term, saying she had said 42 months by mistake instead of 48 months.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

Four other charges of indecent assault which he denied were left to lie on file.

Detective Inspector Wendy Burton said: “The victim did mention this to us when we met him last February and we made detailed enquiries, but we found no record of his making contact or reporting any allegations in 2000. However we fully investigated his report in 2017, and Burr has now been given a prison sentence. I can reassure victims that allegations and reports such as this are taken seriously and will be dealt with appropriately.”

She said the case was investigated fully in 2017 and she moved to reassured victims that such allegations are taken seriously.

Burr’s prosecution is part of a wider investigation into allegations of abuse by former teachers at the school.

Former house master Peter Webb, 74, was jailed for four years in December.

Three more men are due in court later this year. Police have said the prosecutions are not linked.

Ajaz Karim, 63, who lives in London, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six female pupils. He is due to stand trial in April.

James Husband, 67, of York, is accused of four counts of rape and five counts of indecently assaulting a woman.

Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against two men, as well as three counts of indecently assaulting two women.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/paedophile-teacher-sentence-increased-top-1396931#

Attempt to ban press coverage

Sussex Police began investigating teachers at the school in 2016 after allegations were made about Husband.

The cases, involving different victims and time periods, were treated as separate inquiries – apart from Dobbie and Husband, who were tried as co-defendants.

Publicity around the prosecutions prompted several more former pupils to come forward with complaints.

In October, barristers representing Burr, Karim, Dobbie and Husband tried to ban press coverage of court proceedings until all the cases had concluded – effectively attempting to delay publicity for the best part of a year – by claiming that it would be prejudicial to the defendants.

But Judge Christine Henson rejected the plea after it was challenged by Press Association in the public interest.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2018/07/05/guilty-paedophile-ex-shrewsbury-school-teacher-abused-pupils-as-young-as-12/

Peter Burr who was convicted of abuse at Christ’s Hospital School – his full name is

Peter Phillip De Wharton Burr, 73, of The Square, Kingswear, was a house tutor and physics teacher at a top boarding school.

He was jailed for four years in January after four former pupils came forward to say he had groped them in the 1960s and 1970s.

Burr pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” for what he had done at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, Sussex.

His punishment, however, was viewed as far too soft by the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC, who referred the case for top judges to look at again.

At London’s Appeal Court, Lord Justice Davis agreed he had got off too lightly – and upped his jail term to six years seven months.

“PETER PHILIP, DE WHARTON BURR”

Max and Petronella de Wharton Burr with son

Peter  de Wharton Burr (from 1949 group)

Max de Wharton Burr  was his father

His mother Petronilla James

Belmont headmaster Max Burr with his wife Nilla visitng Cambridge

Burr was as mad as any head-master. Complementing his pathological hatred of rabbits and a carefully nurtured  charm to counterbalance his undoubted sadism was his belief that he was handy with a shotgun.

http://www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/history-1920.html

I was able to identify the spot where Taft was shot by Max Burr trying out his new air pistol, and Dunsbier mi found where he had put an arrow through some unfortunate’s leg – although he couldn’t remember the victim’s name. The bloodstains had been grown over. There was a lot of shooting at Belmont in the 1950s.

http://www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/events-2007.html

Peter Burr  writes:

If any OBs are in the Hassocks area, both my parents are buried in Clayton churchyard (my Mother’s ashes in my Father’s grave), and J’s ashes are in the same grave.

After my Mother’s death in 1998 I planted a yew tree in her memory, with a plaque, which is in the churchyard of St Mary’s Streatley on Thames (in front of the church, not behind). Perhaps there are those who might like to pay their respects. [item posted 1 Nov 2010]

Mr Max de Wharton Burr (Brighton College and Jesus College, Cambridge) became Headmaster of Belmont School in 1934

In 1933 Gilbert Evans took on as Assistant Headmaster Max de Wharton Burr

When Max Burr died in 1954, Max Burr’s wife appointed headmaster Christopher Barlow.

Violet Attlee, paedophile Christopher Barlow and Nilla Burr (mother of paedophile Peter Burr), with Clement Attllee, c.1956

However, there was a darker side to Christopher Barlow. He was a paedophile, whose excessive use of the cane made life a misery for many boys at the school. His behaviour would not have been tolerated in a more enlightened age.

Christopher Barlow died in 1990 and Nilla Burr in 1998.

…the last headmaster of the school, who would clearly be imprisoned today as a dangerous paedophile.

http://www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/Harrovian.html

By 1971 numbers had dropped again to 67 and, with massive maintenance bills appearing, the school was running at a serious loss. No buyers could be found with a realistic prospect of continuing to run the school and in 1972 Mrs Burr closed the school and sold the site.

 

Christopher Barlow and Nilla Burr retired to adjacent apartments in Winchester.

 

http://www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/history-1954.html

Belmont School, Hassocks 1904-1972

Mr Christopher Barlow (Stowe and King’s College, Cambridge ), a former Organ Scholar, took over as Headmaster, Mrs Burr remaining as business partner. There were 58 boys in the school in summer term 1958; 75 in 1965; 67 in 1971. There was a change in the most favoured destination schools with Stowe and Sherborne becoming the most prominent.

www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk

 

http://www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk/Docs/SDL-June-30-31.pdf

 

 

Down Belmont Lane – Belmont School, Hassocks

www.belmontschool-hassocks.org.uk



Science teacher Hudson was allowed to teach despite being a convicted sex offender in the UK when it emerged his details were on a banned list. 

Hudson was found guilty at Croydon Crown Court on five counts of moving and concealing indecent material after an operation by Dover customs officers in 1998.

He was placed on List 99, which gives details of people barred or restricted from the teaching profession due to misconduct or on medical grounds.

And he was also put on the Sex Offenders’ Register for four years with his details being added to East Sussex County Council’s internal restricted list.

But three years later he was allowed to teach girls by Estelle Morris, the Government’s then Education Secretary.

The Care Standards Tribunal backed Ms Morris’s decision and it heard medical evidence that while his feelings towards young boys were “inappropriate”, he had “no interest in girls”.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1890771.Sussex_paedophile_to_be_deported_to_Holland/

January 2008

Paedophile teacher commits suicide

A paedophile teacher due to be extradited to the Netherlands for importing child abuse images has committed suicide.

Keith Hudson, 54, was due to fly to serve five months in a Dutch prison but did not turn up to Heathrow Airport.

Hudson, who ran private tuition company Sussex Learning Centre, had been granted bail on stringent conditions including the payment of a £10,000 security to City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.

A hearing to order the forfeiture of the money was arranged for today.

But Amelia Nice, for the Dutch authorities, told the court: “He failed to report to Heathrow. It has since been brought to our attention that apparently he has died.

“Apparently he committed suicide.”

Hudson, of Willowmead, Crowborough, has previous convictions in the UK for similar offences, had signed on as a sex offender for four years and been banned from working with boys.

He was found guilty of five counts of moving and concealing indecent material at Croydon Crown Court, following an operation by Dover customs officers in 1998.

A Care Standards Tribunal had heard he was not a risk to girls and limited the court’s earlier ban on teaching all children.

Education bosses at East Sussex County Council issued a warning to all schools in the area after the discovery that he was touting for business.

Then in 2002 he was found guilty of importing and stocking indecent images of boys in the Netherlands between April and December 1999.

However he was not in court for his sentence and a bid for his extradition from this country was later launched.

The disgraced tutor was arrested by Sussex and Met detectives at his home last month.

He lost his fight against his return and a Westminster judge ordered his extradition on December 27 last year.

Hudson was trusted to turn up to Heathrow on January 11 on stringent bail conditions including residence at his home address, daily reporting to police, and to have no contact with any person under 18.

On hearing the report of his death District Judge Quentin Purdy said he required confirmation from a police officer and adjourned the hearing to February 6.

The judge said if he has died the £10,000 would be returned.

September 2002

Porn teacher’s lessons alarm

A convicted sex offender is offering private tuition to young children.

Keith Hudson, found guilty of child abuse images offences in 1998, is advertising classes through his Crowborough-based company Sussex Learning Centre.

Teachers in East Sussex have warned parents to contact them before signing up with external schools and tutors.

Police said Hudson, 49, of Willowmead, Crowborough, is not breaking any law in setting up a private school despite being on the council’s internal restricted list.

They are attempting to close the loophole which allows men like Hudson, who was put on the Sex Offenders’Register for four years following his conviction, to offer their services to children.

Jenni Miller, headteacher of Roselands Infant School in Woodgate Road, Eastbourne, has sent a letter home to parents warning them of the possible threat.

She wrote: “Our attention has been drawn to the fact parents in the Uckfield area have been approached by private tutors offering specialist tuition who are not of an acceptable professional standard and whose motivation for wanting to be a tutor might be dangerous to young people.

“One such organisation about which we have concerns is the Sussex Learning Centre, which has Keith Hudson as principal tutor.

“I have taken the exceptional step of writing to you because I believe the situation is sufficiently serious.”

Hudson was found guilty at Croydon Crown Court on five counts of moving and concealing indecent material following an operation by Dover Customs officers.

Magazines containing indecent photographs of children were discovered in packages sent via the port.

Hudson was also placed on List 99, which gives details of people barred or restricted from the teaching profession due to misconduct or on medical grounds.

Education bosses at East Sussex County Council issued a warning to all schools in the area following the discovery he was touting for business.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: “There is a legal loophole which we are trying to close.

“There is nothing stopping Mr Hudson setting up a private teaching school.

“We’ll refer this to the Association of Chief Police Officers.”

Hudson last night said he saw nothing inappropriate in offering private tuition to young children.

Hudson, 49, who runs the Sussex Learning Centre, said he ran a ‘totally professional’ service which was approved by the police and the Government.

And he denied touting for business by circulating leaflets.

He added: “People’s fears are completely groundless. I don’t know what these fears are about.

“My service, in all respects, is extremely professional. It is checked by the police and they have no objection to it continuing.

“It is also checked by specialist agencies, including an advisor to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.

“I’m sure if people were aware of the facts they would not be worried.”

However, education bosses at East Sussex County Council issued a warning to all schools in the area after discovering he was touting for business.

Hudson insisted he had not circulated leaflets offering one-to-one tuition to children as young as four.

He said: “This information is several years out of date. Most of my clients come through personal recommendations from one parent to another.”

Hudson said the teaching staff at the learning centre consisted of “mostly myself”.

He said he some tutor sessions were held at the learning centre, some at his home.

“They are held wherever parents want them to be held. “

Asked if he informed parents about being on the Sex Offenders Register, he said: “I have been told there is no need to tell parents.”

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1988433.Paedophile_teacher_commits_suicide/

Mr Hudson was convicted and fined in 1998 after being found in possession of magazines featuring indecent images of young boys.

But since then he has been distributing leaflets around a number of Eastbourne primary schools advertising his tutorial service.

Mr Hudson, who said at the time of his conviction that his interest in the magazines was limited to naturism, was removed from the county supply teacher list. He then set up a private tutoring centre called The Sussex Learning Centre.

This side-stepped the need for a criminal records check – a loophole the county council is still urging is closed by the government – four years after it sent letters of warning about Mr Hudson to parents in Eastbourne via local schools.

Hudson confirmed to national media this week that his business was still running. A council spokesman said, ‘This case involves a particular loophole we have previously highlighted, which allows a private tutor to teach children without any Criminal Records Bureau declaration or regulation.

‘We want to see private tuition services regulated, and urge the Minister to review the situation as a matter of utmost importance.’

The spokesman said Hudson had never been employed directly as a teacher by East Sussex County Council, but had police clearance for supply work prior to his conviction.

The spokesman said, ‘He was removed from the ESCC supply teacher list in 1998, as soon as we were aware of his conviction for possession of indecent images.

‘We immediately wrote to our schools telling them of our concerns about his unsuitability to work with children and provided a standard letter schools could use to inform parents.

‘Since his conviction, it has been our view that Mr Hudson was not suitable to work with any children.

‘Parents will find it bizarre that someone convicted of possessing indecent photographs of boys can teach children again.

‘We should all be especially concerned that a loophole like this means that someone with a conviction can set up as a private tutor and parents will often know nothing about their background.’

https://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/teacher-still-allowed-to-work-despite-conviction-for-possessing-indecent-images-of-boys-1-1405224

Hudson has set up a “learning centre” based at his home

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/SICKENING!PAEDO%27S+PRIVATE+LESSONS+FOR+KIDS%3B+Police+and+council…-a092502312

Sussex Learning Centre

15 Willowmead
Crowborough, ENG TN6 1LW, United Kingdom

Year Established 1995

https://www.manta.com/ic/mtzfm6y/gb/sussex-learning-centre

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/5124335.Porn_teacher_s_lessons_alarm/

Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley

In September 2005, it was announced that Estelle Morris, would succeed Lady Kennedy of The Shaws as President of the National Children’s Bureau.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estelle_Morris

Her father, Charles, was a former MP and an aide to Harold Wilson. Her uncle, Lord (Alf) Morris of Manchester, was a Labour minister, for the disabled.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/estelle-morris-the-head-teacher-9242576.html

23 OCT 2012

There are now up to nine cases across the country in which male teachers named as paedophiles have been allowed to carry on teaching.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/morris-cleared-sex-case-teacher-18822

Keith Hudson

His conviction dates from 1996 for possessing indecent images of boys. A science teacher from Sussex, Hudson, 52, was added to List 99. But in 2001 Estelle Morris, the education secretary at the time, cleared him to teach in an all-girls school after hearing medical evidence that said that while Hudson’s feelings towards boys were “homosexual, paedophilic and inappropriate”, he had “no interest in girls”.

In an interview with ITV News this weekend, Hudson said he posed no threat to youngsters: “I do not consider I have committed any sex offence – indeed no offence. I think, therefore, I should not be on the list.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jan/16/schools.children

 


Christ’s Hospital School ex-sports coach jailed for sex abuse

9 Aug 2018

Ajaz Karim

A sports teacher at a private school has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually abusing female students.

Ajaz Karim, 63, from Hammersmith, west London, was convicted of nine charges of indecent assault at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.

Hove Crown Court was told he abused six girls aged 14 to 18 between 1985 and 1993.

He was also found guilty at an earlier hearing of one count of attempted indecent assault.

He is one of a number of teaching staff at the West Sussex school who have been convicted of sexually abusing students.

Karim had claimed during the trial his relationship “with the girls and boys was one of friendship”.

Judge Christine Henson said Karim displayed a “complete disregard” and “continued arrogance” towards his victims, adding: “I’m in no doubt that you used your popularity as a teacher to groom your victims.

“They should have been safe and secure, sadly they were not.

“You have betrayed everything a teacher should stand for.”

He left the school after complaints from four pupils surfaced between 1990 and 1993.

Senior staff came under fire from victims over the way they handled the allegations.

Teachers never reported him to the police and he was initially allowed to carry on working, even with the girls in question.

‘Hugely traumatic’

Reading a victim’s statement, Oliver Dunkin, prosecuting, said the victim was “deeply disappointed” with the school’s handling of the incidents, which made it “hugely traumatic”.

“For 32 years I have lived with the deeply buried memory of events that took place with Mr Karim,” the statement read.

“Until recently I believed the impact had been minimal and I got on and lived my life.”

An NSPCC spokeswoman said Karim displayed a “shocking breach of trust”.

She added: “We hope today’s sentencing provides some sort of closure for those cruelly targeted by Karim.”

Karim was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-45129488


 

Retired teacher Roger Martin leaves Crawley Magistrates’ Court after denying sexually abusing a 10-year boy

Roger Martin today pleaded not guilty at Crawley Magistrates’ Court to  assaulting a boy at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, West Sussex

18 July 2018

A retired teacher has denied sexually abusing a 10-year-old pupil at a leading private school.

Roger Martin will stand trial after pleading not guilty at Crawley Magistrates’ Court earlier.

The 82-year-old is charged with indecently assaulting a boy at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, West Sussex, between September and December 1976.

The court heard the allegations involved a “vulnerable and homesick young boy”.

Mr Martin, of Palgrave Road, Great Dunham, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, was investigated by the Sussex Police complex abuse unit after it was contacted with information for the first time in November 2017.

He was granted unconditional bail and is next due to appear at Lewes Crown Court on 15 August.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-44877088

The 82-year-old (pictured) will stand trial at Lewes Crown Court after denying indecently assaulting a 10-year-old 

Retired teacher, 82, denies sexually abusing ‘vulnerable and homesick’ boy, 10, at leading private school Christ’s Hospital

  • Roger Martin faces trial after pleading not guilty at Crawley Magistrates’ Court 
  • Charged with indecently assaulting boy at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham 
  • The alleged attack at West Sussex school are said to have taken place in 1970s

18 July 2018

A retired teacher today denied sexually abusing a 10-year-old pupil at a leading private school.

Roger Martin, 82, will stand trial after pleading not guilty at Crawley Magistrates’ Court.

He is charged with indecently assaulting a boy at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, West Sussex, in the 1970s. The court heard the allegation involved a ‘vulnerable and homesick young boy’.

Dressed in a grey suit and brown shoes, Martin spoke loudly and clearly when he gave his credentials and entered the plea, answering ‘yes indeed’ to confirm he understood the next stage of proceedings.

Mr Martin, of Great Dunham, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, was investigated by the Sussex Police complex abuse unit after it was contacted with information for the first time in November 2017.

He was granted unconditional bail and is due to appear at Lewes Crown Court on August 15 at 10am for a plea and trial preparation hearing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5966445/Retired-teacher-82-denies-sexually-abusing-vulnerable-homesick-10-year-old.html

There are various references to Roger Martin throughout this forum. He was a pupil at CH  (1947-55) when I was there and subsequently served on the staff for two discrete spells.

Roger has come to my mind again recently on three counts:

1. I have written about him while reviewing Francis Warner’s Book By the Cam and the Isis in the Old Blue and in the forthcoming edition of the Blue
2. I just happened to be watching the old ITV Remembrance Day service from the 1970s in which he declaimed FWW poetry with great gusto and

Roger must be unique in coming to live at the school on three separate occasions; he will have a sharp insight into the changes that he observed over that period. Coming afresh on each occasion undoubtedly must have reinforced his impressions of CH which will have been different on each and every occasion.

Roger Martin at Christ’s Hospital School: Ba B 47-55, Staff 63-68 and 72-96

…..

I was taught by Roger Martin certainly as a third former and possibly second form or LE too (Latin and Divinity if memory serves me right)

When I was there Roger was a junior housemaster in Barnes A with Bob Sillett under “Pongo” Littlefield. He left round about the time I was in the LE or GE to teach at a school in Kenya, Starahe (?spelling).

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1786&start=30

…….


Christ’s Hospital School where 5 teachers have been jailed for CSA:

http://www.itv.com/news/2018-07-05/two-more-christs-hospital-teachers-found-guilty-of-sex-attacks-on-pupils/

Image result for "tom lawson" + "nigel lawson"

Nigella, Lord Nigel Lawson, Tom Lawson

5 May 2015

Tom Lawson, son of Lord Lawson and half-brother of Nigella, was educated at Eton before going to Oxford, and is now deputy head of Christ’s Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-photographic-history-of-bullingdon-club-tracked-down-including-new-picture-of-10224679.html

Image result for "nigel lawson" + "leon brittan"

Leon Brittan, Lord Lawson, Keith Joseph

Lord Lawson say Police should stop funding investigations into historical abuse.

22/11/2015


Image result for "tom lawson" + "rosa monckton"

Lord Lawson’s daughter-in-law, Rosa Monckton, was good friends with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She has numerous numbers in Jeffrey Epstein’s back book. Tom Lawson’s half-brother, Dominic Lawson, married Rosa Monckton

Rosa Monckton married to Nigel Lawson’s son, speaking about close friend and paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein:

“He’s very enigmatic,” Rosa Monckton told Vanity Fair in 2003. Monckton was the former British CEO of Tiffany & Co. and confidante to the late Princess Diana. She was also a close friend of Epstein’s since the 1980s. “He never reveals his hand . . . He’s a classic iceberg. What you see is not what you get.”

Both profiles intimated that Epstein had a predilection for young women but never went further.

Rosa Monckton recalls Epstein telling her that her daughter, Domenica, who suffers from Down syndrome, needed the sun, and that Rosa should feel free to bring her to his house in Palm Beach anytime.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/03/jeffrey-epstein-200303

https://nypost.com/2016/10/09/the-sex-slave-scandal-that-exposed-pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epstein/

Rosa Monckton’s aunt was good friends with Jimmy Savile

[Jimmy Savile with Central Remedial Clinic founder Lady Valerie Goulding (Monckton)]

From left:..An Taoiseach Charles Haughey TD..Lady Valerie Goulding (Monckton) of the Central Remedial Clinic..Jimmy Savile.



  • Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

Image result for Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

Image result for Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?t=4549&start=45

alun;

The current headmaster (since 2016) at Eastbourne College is Tom Lawson, half-brother of Nigela and son of the Tory grandee Nigel who argued that no funds should be ploughed into historical child sex allegations.

Tom Lawson came to Eastbourne College from Christ’s Hospital where no fewer than 5 teachers have been convicted for CSA and where a common punishment used to be to send pupils down to Peter Ball’s house!

  • Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

Image result for Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

Image result for Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.

http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?t=4549&start=45

Another director of Eastbourne College was Alison ‘Butterfingers’ Saunders (2008 – 2014). Despite the collapse of an unprecedented number of abuse cases during her watch as DPP, she still insists she has done a good job:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5568129/Under-fire-CPS-boss-Alison-Saunders-NOT-contract-renewed.html

 

10 Dec 1991 – Letter from Peter Ball to Enoch Powell

alun:

The address on that note from Bishop Ball to Enoch Powell is significant: It is the postal address for Eastbourne College, where Peter Ball was on the BOD between 1991 and 1992, a school ravaged by cases of child sexual abuse.

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4406562/Two-ex-Eastbourne-College-teachers-sexually-assaulted-boy.html

 

Two retired teachers who sexually assaulted a boy while they taught at his college are jailed for a total of 17 years

  • Ex-history teacher Andrew Boxer, 67, was sentenced to 15 years in jail
  • Ex-music teacher Graham Jones, 63, was jailed for two years 
  • Both taught at Eastbourne College, East Sussex, at the time of the abuse, while the victim was a pupil there

Andrew Boxer and Graham Jones were both convicted of several counts of indecently assaulting the same boy between 1988 and 1993, following a week-long trial.

Former history teacher Boxer, 67, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for seven counts of indecent assault – six at the same address in Eastbourne, East Sussex and another in Cambridge.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4406562/Two-ex-Eastbourne-College-teachers-sexually-assaulted-boy.html

 

The current headmaster (since 2016) at Eastbourne College is Tom Lawson, half-brother of Nigela and son of the Tory grandee Nigel who argued that no funds should be ploughed into historical child sex allegations.

Yet another director of Eastbourne College (1991 – 2004) was the Duke Of Devonshire Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, another close friend of Savile, BigEars and Bishop Ball, seen here giving Savile a silly handshake:

Dame Alun Roberts ‏ @ciabaudo

A punishment at Christ’s Hospital School was to be sent down for a few nights at Peter Ball’s house. I wonder whether those sending them down knew what their fate might be? And who were his ‘special friends’?

It would appear Tom Lawson was what is referred to as a ‘safe pair of hands’, stumbling from one paedo school to the next. He also worked at Winchester College for 15 years, where John Smyth QC abused boys:


EXCLUSIVE: Bullingdon Club 1996- Tom Lawson, the arms dealer's son and the 'mayhem' that took 30 cops to shut down
The former Chancellor’s son was part of a Bullingdon set that caused ‘mayhem’ at a party in Kingston Blount that required 30 police officers to clear up.

EXCLUSIVE: Bullingdon Club 1996- Tom Lawson, the arms dealer’s son and the ‘mayhem’ that took 30 cops to shut down

https://www.byline.com/project/30/article/700

Mr Hughes has now indicated that new complainants came forward following the media coverage of Peter Ball’s sentencing. It was considered that it was not in the public interest to pursue these cases, as Peter Ball has recently been incarcerated.

 

Peter Ball would pray naked with them at the altar and encourage them to submit to beatings. At least five more victims were schoolchildren.
Christ’s Hospital School supports Prince Charles’ Prince’s Trust
…the Prince’s Trust said: “We would like to thank the Christ’s Hospital community for all that you have done over the past year for fundraising so much for The Prince’s Trust as part of your Chapel Charities commitment.

 Former Christ’s Hospital teacher charged with historic sex offence

16 July 2018
A former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School has been charged with an historic sexual offence against a pupil. Police said Roger Martin, retired, of Palgrave Rd, Great Dunham, Kings Lynn, has been charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy at the school. The 82-year-old has been served with a summons to appear at Crawley Magistrates Court on July 18.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “This is a separate case to those of five other former teachers from the same School, who have already been subject of separate criminal proceedings – three have been convicted and sentenced and two have been convicted and await sentencing. “The prosecution follows an investigation by officers from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit after information was received for the first time in November 2017.

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/former-christ-s-hospital-teacher-charged-with-historic-sex-offence-1-8569431

He is accused of assaulting a 10-year-old boy at the school between September and December 1976

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-44848411

He is an Old Blue who left in 1955.
He returned to teach and be assistant house master of Prep A in 1963.

After a couple of years he went to Strahe (Starehe) School in Kenya and then returned to CH a couple of years later.

http://chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5166&p=140860&hilit=roger+martin#p140860

STAREHE UK ASSOCIATION – Fundraising and support for Starehe Boys’ Centre and Starehe Girls’ Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Roger Martin Director appointed   16 Nov 1991

https://companycheck.co.uk/company/00968223/STAREHE-UK-ASSOCIATION/companies-house-data

http://www.starehe.org/appeal/hrh_the_princess_royal.html

Griffin gave me his biography by Roger Martin, one time his deputy.

Roger Martin, a former Starehe head and author of the book Anthem of Bugles

The first and most significant history of the school was written by a former volunteer teacher: Roger Martin, Anthem of Bugles: The Story of Starehe Boys’ Centre and School (Nairobi, 1978)

Image result for Anthem of Bugles, in 1978.

A particularly productive connection was made with Christ’s Hospital in Britain, a school similarly run on public school lines but with an intake of children based on a range of — arguably dubious — charitable criteria. Volunteers such as Peter Attenborough introduced many of Christ’s customs while others such as Roger Martin developed long-lasting connections which would see him publish Starehe’s first history, Anthem of Bugles, in 1978.

https://academic.oup.com/past/article/233/1/227/2915153

 


Christ’s Hospital School teacher jailed for pupil rape

13  July 2018

A former teacher at a top independent school in West Sussex has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for a string of sex offences including rape.

James Husband, 68, from York, was convicted of raping a 15-year-old pupil at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.

He was also found guilty at an earlier hearing at Hove Crown Court of five indecent assault charges on the girl.

During the trial, the court heard Husband told the girl: “It’s OK, I’ve had a vasectomy,” before raping her.

Husband, of Wigginton, is the fifth Christ’s Hospital School teacher to be convicted of sexually abusing students.

His crimes spanned a period of more than 30 years and involved 22 victims.

His co-defendant and a former head of house at the school Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, was convicted of 15 counts involving multiple offences against six boys and two girls as young as 12.

Dobbie, formerly of Hereford, was teaching at independent Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire, at the time of his arrest in 2016.

He has yet to be sentenced.

Jurors heard the abuse took place between 1990 and 2001 and that both men were friends and used to laugh together about their abuse.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-44817719


Christ’s Hospital teacher faces further sexual abuse allegations

5 July 2018

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall then told the court there were “outstanding matters” against Dobbie as “two other complainants had come forward during the course of the trial”. 

Gary Dobbie was found guilty was found guilty of 15 counts involving multiple offences against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001

Investigations are ongoing and no charges have so far been brought. Police have confirmed they are both former school pupils

Husband will be sentenced on July 13. A date is yet to be set for Dobbie

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/national/16336070.christs-hospital-teacher-faces-further-sexual-abuse-allegations/

Two former teachers at Christ’s Hospital ​​school guilty of abusing pupils

Gary Dobbie and James Husband face jail as number of ex-staff convicted reaches five

5 July 2018

Two more teachers who worked at a top private school are facing jail after being found guilty of sexually abusing pupils.

Five teachers from Christ’s Hospital school have now been convicted after police investigated complaints made by 22 former students.

A jury of seven women and five men at Hove crown court deliberated for 25 hours and 43 minutes before returning their verdicts on the 21 counts against James Husband and Gary Dobbie on Thursday.

The two men, who were friends, would laugh together about their crimes, which took place over the course of 13 years while they lived and worked at the school in Horsham, West Sussex, the court was told.

Dobbie and Husband looked straight ahead from the dock and did not react as the verdicts were read out. The NSPCC described them as “predatory and calculated”

Peter Webb and Peter Burr were both jailed in the last year after admitting committing offences at the school between the 1960s and 1980s. Ajaz Karim was found guilty in April of assaulting six girls between 1985 and 1993 and is due to be sentenced in August.

Husband, 68, of Wigginton in York, was convicted of one count of rape and five of indecently assaulting a girl as young as 14 between 1990 and 1994. He had claimed they had “consensual sex” once when she was 16.

He told a 15-year-old pupil: “It’s OK, I’ve had a vasectomy,” before raping her, the court heard.

Afterwards, he confided in Dobbie about the encounter, who later joked with the girl that she had “beard rash”, indicating that he knew what had happened, the court heard. He also indecently assaulted the same pupil later on.

Husband’s victim described being “disgusted with herself” and said she felt suicidal. She reported him to the school’s chaplain but no action was taken. She said her mother did not believe her story.

Husband left the school after it emerged he was having a consensual affair with a 17-year-old pupil who was not underage and not a complainant in the case.

The married father, whose children were attending the school at the time, “deceived” senior staff by embarking on the affair, jurors heard. The former tutor and head of department talked about the “spur-of-the-moment” encounter which involved several instances leading from holding hands and kissing to sex.

Giving evidence in his defence, he spoke of his desire to kiss her during a period when he felt disgruntled with how the school was being run.

In a diary entry read to the court, the girl said: “Told too many people at school then decided to go for it. The fling. So got off with him on Saturday night. The most amazing thing. Happy.”

Dobbie, 66, of Albi in France and formerly of Hereford, was found guilty of 15 counts involving multiple offences against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001.

He was teaching at independent Shrewsbury school in Shropshire at the time of his arrest in 2016.

Dobbie groomed pupils by hosting dinner parties with favourite students at his house in the school grounds, the court heard. He would ply them with whisky and wine while encouraging them to talk about their sexual encounters.

At one of the gatherings, a victim recalls a man who also attended as a guest rating the boys in order of their attractiveness, to Dobbie’s “delight”.

On another occasion, after giving a girl alcohol, she came out of the bathroom to find Dobbie had undone his trousers and was “grinning at her”. Fearing that he wanted to have sex, she left the property.

After she left the school, she told her mother, who phoned housemaster Neil Flemming but no action was taken.

He took a boy as young as 12 to a bedroom, telling him to take off his breeches and underwear while Dobbie performed a sex act on himself, the court heard. Another boy recalls falling asleep on his sofa and waking up to find him kneeling beside him with his hand in his shirt.

Dobbie also helped to raise money for another pupil, who was abused over a period of six years, to take a gap year after leaving school and assaulted him when he returned for a visit.

Sussex police began investigating teachers at the school in 2016 after allegations were made about Husband.

Publicity around the prosecutions prompted several more former pupils to come forward with complaints.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/05/two-former-teachers-christs-hospital-school-guilty-abusing-pupils

In October, barristers representing Burr, Karim, Dobbie and Husband tried to ban press coverage of court proceedings until all the cases had concluded – effectively attempting to delay publicity for the best part of a year – by claiming that it would be prejudicial to the defendants.

But Judge Christine Henson rejected the plea after it was challenged by Press Association in the public interest.

Husband and Dobbie will be sentenced at a later date.


James Husband and Gary Dobbie trial is ongoing, but no further reporting by MSM since 15 June 2018

T20170536 GARY WILLIAM DOBBIE

T20177346 JAMES ANDREW HUSBAND

Hove Trial Centre 27 June 2019

http://causelist.org/hove-trial-centre/


 

Christ’s Hospital School: Rape accused tells of affair with 17-year-old

!5 June 2018

A former private school teacher accused of raping a 15-year-old girl has told of an affair with another student.

James Husband, 68, recalled the consensual liaison with a 17-year-old girl at Christ’s Hospital School while giving evidence in his trial.

Hove Crown Court heard he was married and his children attended the school during the “spur of the moment” affair.

He and co-defendant Gary Dobbie, ex-head of house at the Horsham school, both deny sexually abusing pupils.

Mr Husband, of Wigginton in York, denies four counts of rape and five of indecently assaulting a different pupil when she was as young as 14 between 1990 and 1994 while he taught at the prestigious school.

Mr Dobbie, 68, of Albi in France and formerly of Hereford, faces a string of allegations against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001.

He denies 12 counts of indecently assaulting four boys and two girls, attempting to indecently assault a boy and two counts of indecency with a child.

He was teaching at independent Shrewsbury School, Shropshire, at the time of his arrest in 2016.

Mr Husband left his job as a history teacher when it emerged he was having a consensual affair with the 17-year-old pupil who was not underage and is not a complainant in the case, jurors were told.

Giving evidence, he told the court there were several instances with the girl – from holding hands and kissing to sex – but said he did not consider it a relationship.

During cross-examination, the court heard him describe the moment he kissed the student on the lips after a disco at night in the school grounds.

He said: “I can see her in my mind’s eye looking up at me. I can remember the kiss.

“The look on her face suggested that she wanted me to.

“I wanted to kiss her.”

In a diary entry read to the court, the girl said: “Told too many people at school then decided to go for it. The fling.

“So got off with him on Saturday night. The most amazing thing. Happy.”

Mr Husband later conceded to the court that he had had sex with two 17-year-olds.

Addressing the charges involving the other girl which he denies, claiming they had consensual sex once when she was 16, he said: “I don’t know why [the alleged victim] has brought these allegations against me.”

Jurors previously heard he had told the girl when she was 15: “It’s OK, I’ve had a vasectomy,” before raping her.

The trial continues.


Hove Court  listings 14 June 2018

 

MSM seems to have stopped reporting on the Christ’s Hopsital School’s paedophile trial re: Gary Dobbie.  Last news report was on  1 June 2018, but case is ongoing (Dobbie being tried with James Husband)

www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/crown-court-lists-hearing-results.php

Court hears of ex-Shrewsbury School teacher’s 13 years of alleged child sex abuse

A former Shrewsbury School teacher accused of child sexual offences joked with a girl who had been raped by one of his colleagues, a court heard.

 

Gary Dobbie was working at Shrewsbury School when he was arrested on child sex abuse charges in 2016

Gary Dobbie told the 15-year-old girl that she had “beard rash”, indicating he knew what had happened, jurors were told on Thursday.

Dobbie, head of house at Christ’s Hospital School in the 1990s, was allegedly told about the encounter by history teacher James Husband,

Husband told the pupil “It’s OK, I’ve had a vasectomy” before raping her, the court heard.

The victim reported Husband to the Horsham school’s chaplain but no action was taken. Even her mother did not believe her story, Hove Crown Court heard.

Years of alleged abuse

The pair, who both worked at the prestigious West Sussex school and lived in the grounds, are standing trial after denying sexually abusing eight pupils over the course of 13 years.

Dobbie, aged 66, was teaching at Shrewsbury School at the time of his arrest in 2016.

Eloise Marshall, prosecuting, told the court victims believed the teachers would “laugh” together about their exploits.

Husband, 68, of Wigginton in York, denies four counts of rape and five of indecently assaulting a girl as young as 14 between 1990 and 1994. He claims they had “consensual sex” once when she was 16.

He left the school after it emerged he was having a consensual affair with a different pupil who was not underage and not a complainant in the case, Ms Marshall said.

The girl’s diary entries suggested they had sex in Husband’s study – which is where he is accused of abusing his alleged victim, the court heard.

Eight victims

Dobbie, of Albi in France and formerly of Hereford, faces a string of allegations against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001.

He denies 12 counts of indecently assaulting four boys and two girls, attempting to indecently assault a boy and two counts of indecency with a child.

Ms Marshall said: “Both the men knew each other and there is some evidence to suggest that they discussed what they were doing.”

Husband’s alleged victim “lay there like a rag doll” while he raped her and waited for it to be over, the court heard.

It became so frequent she began to “hate” what was happening, was “disgusted with herself” and was suicidal, Ms Marshall said.

‘Grooming’

Dobbie “groomed” pupils, by hosting dinner parties at his house in the school grounds with “favourite” students, jurors were told. He would allegedly ply them with whisky and wine while talk about their sexual encounters was “encouraged”.

At one of the gatherings an alleged victim recalls a man who also attended as a guest rating the boys in order of their attractiveness, to Dobbie’s “delight”, Ms Marshall said.

On another occasion after giving a girl alcohol, she came out of the bathroom to find Dobbie had undone his trousers and was “grinning at her”, the court heard. Fearing he wanted to have sex, she left the property.

She told her mother after she moved on from the school who phoned housemaster Neil Flemming but no action was taken, Ms Marshall said.

When questioned by police, Dobbie branded the claims “totally untrue”.

The trial heard how he took a boy as young as 12 to a bedroom and told him to take off his breeches and underwear while Dobbie performed a sex act on himself.

Another recalls falling asleep on Dobbie’s sofa and waking up to find him kneeling beside him with his hand in his shirt, Ms Marshall said.

The teacher even helped raise money for another pupil – allegedly abused over a period of six years – to take a gap year after leaving school but assaulted him when he returned for a visit, the court heard.

Founded in the 16th century, Christ’s Hospital charges boarders up to £31,500 a year and counts Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge as alumni.

Pupils still wear a Tudor-style uniform consisting of a long blue coat and high yellow socks.

The trial, expected to last six weeks, continues.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2018/06/01/court-hears-of-ex-shrewsbury-school-teachers-13-years-of-alleged-child-sex-abuse/


Ajaz Karim

‘Smarmy’ sports coach is convicted of sexually abusing six girls from 14 to 18 at top private school

  • Ajaz Karim, 63, is convicted of seven counts of indecent and attempted assault
  • The former sports coach labelled his victims at Christ’s Hospital School ‘liars’ 
  • Former Eton College coach is the third Christ’s teacher convicted of sex assault

A sports coach who was employed at some of the UK’s top private schools and clubs has been convicted of indecently assaulting students.

Ajaz Karim, 63, has been found guilty of assaulting young girls at the prestigious Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex.

The once Ugandan refugee, a former pupil at the school whose education was funded by Sir Barnes Wallis, also coached at Eton College and The Queen’s Club.

A jury convicted the ex-coach of seven charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault, at Brighton Crown Court on Thursday. The jury is deliberating on a further two indecent assault charges.

Karim’s victims were all aged between 14 and 18 when he taught them between 1985 and 1993.

The jury heard how Karim, of Hammersmith, west London, massaged a student’s ‘virtually naked body’ while she lay face down on the floor of his locked study.

Another girl was pushed up against a wall and kissed by her predatory teacher.

He claimed he was using alternative therapy the Bowen Technique and was teaching them breathing exercises to help when playing sports.

During cross-examination, he admitted he had no qualifications for the practice.

Senior staff at the school came under fire from the victims over the way they handled the allegations at the time.

Karim was not reported to the police and was initially allowed to carry on working – and teaching the girls in question.

Karim left the school after complaints from four pupils surfaced between 1990 and 1993.

He is the school’s third former teacher to be convicted of sexual abuse.

Divorced Karim, was seen as a school ‘success story’ because he was a refugee, gained a scholarship and returned to teach there, while also working at Champneys health club in London, and later at Eton College, Queen’s Club, and The Hurlingham Club.

His fees were even paid for by alumnus Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb.

But the coach, described as ‘smarmy’ by his victims, went on to have ‘wholly unnecessary’ physical contact with students.

One of his victims told how he was laughing as she ran away after he tried to ‘snog her’ and she was shocked by his audacity.

Another said Karim spread rumours about her after she complained, which turned other pupils against her.

She said the experience had forced her to write off a large ‘chunk’ of her life.

Karim dismissed the allegations, saying he was friendly with students and there was nothing sexual in their relationships.

Former Christ's Hospital School headmaster Richard Poulton leaving Brighton Crown Court with his wife, after Ajaz Karim, 63, denies nine charges of indecent assault

Former Christ’s Hospital School headmaster Richard Poulton leaving Brighton Crown Court with his wife, after Ajaz Karim, 63, denies nine charges of indecent assault

Instead of admitting his crimes, Karim branded his victims liars, even accusing one of being a ‘manipulative’ attention seeker.

He said he was a ‘really good looking man at the time’ and was ‘offended’ anyone suggested he was attracted to her.

His 26-year-old son and ex-wife sat in the back of the court when Judge Christine Henson QC said he will face a lengthy prison sentence and remanded him in custody. He did not react.

Simon Reid, the school’s current headteacher, said: ‘We are deeply sorry that the offences committed by Ajaz Karim almost 30 years ago occurred here at Christ’s Hospital.

‘Child sexual abuse is an appalling violation of trust which can continue to have an impact on its victims long after it takes place.

‘We would like to thank those former pupils whose courage and strength meant that this individual will now finally face justice.’

He said the school’s safeguarding policy has been improved since the time of the offences and that ‘any allegations arising now would be dealt with in a very different way’.

Karim is the third Christ’s Hospital teacher to be convicted after ex-housemaster Peter Webb, 74, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to 11 counts of indecently assaulting four boys, the youngest of whom was 11, over a decade during the 1970s and 1980s.

Retired teacher Peter Burr, 73, was also jailed for four years in January after admitting nine counts of indecently assaulting four boys aged 11 to 14 at the school between 1969 and 1973.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5635079/Prestigious-Christs-Hospital-School-teacher-convicted-historic-sex-assaults-students.html

Karim denied the 10 charges, and branded his victims liars.

Judge Henson said Karim would not be sentenced before 23 July.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-43825607

Karim did not react as the guilty verdicts were announced. His son and ex-wife sat in the back of the court.

Divorced Karim, who has a 26-year-old son, described himself as an “arrogant young coach” whose job was to “bring out the potential in students”.

He was seen as a school “success story” because he was a refugee, gained a scholarship and returned to teach there while also working at Champneys health club in London, and later at Eton College, Queen’s Club, and The Hurlingham Club.

His fees were even paid for by alumnus Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16171306.Private_school_sports_coach_convicted_of_indecently_assaulting_girls/

 Christ’s Hospital abuse accused ‘used alternative therapy’

13 Apr 2018

A sports coach accused of indecently assaulting pupils at a private school told a court there was nothing sexual in his actions as he was using a specialist sports injury technique.

Brighton Crown Court heard Ajaz Karim, 63, of Hammersmith, denies the 10 charges against him.

He said he practised an alternative therapy on pupils at Christ’s Hospital School called the Bowen technique.

“There was absolutely not anything sexual,” he said.

Mr Karim, of Baron’s Court Road, denies nine indecent assaults and one attempted indecent assault against six girls aged 14 to 18 between 1985 and 1993.

He told the jury: “My relationship with the girls and boys was one of friendship. I wanted to treat them like young adults. I was approachable.

“Teachers at Christ’s Hospital were like gods. You really could not approach them.

“There was a saying, if Mr Karim teases you that means he likes you.”

Former headmaster Richard Poulton has told the court Mr Karim was a Christ’s Hospital “success story” because he arrived as a refugee, went on to be educated at the Horsham school on a scholarship and later returned as staff.

Mr Karim described how President Idi Amin expelled Asians from Uganda in 1972 and his family arrived in the UK, adding: “We had lost everything.”

The court has heard claims he had unnecessary contact with students including giving one a massage while she was virtually naked and pushing another against a wall and kissing her.

Giving evidence, Mr Karim said he carried out some one-to-one sessions to teach students breathing exercises and on occasion would touch their shoulders with his thumbs or pressed on their lower backs.

He said he never touched them while they were naked or gave them massages.

Mr Karim also denied locking students in his study and claimed never to have known one of the complainants.

He said he did not recall some of the alleged incidents as it was a long time ago.

The court heard he was warned by the headmaster in 1990 not to talk to the girls when they were on their own and he “unfortunately” disobeyed this when he spoke to an alleged victim because he felt she needed help.

He said the situation then became difficult because he felt he was “treated like a criminal”, adding: “It broke my relationship with a wonderful headmaster. I really don’t know why I did that.”

The trial continues.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-43754461

Allegations against Christ’s Hospital School teacher ‘dealt with in-house as he was success story’

12 Apr 2019

A top public school headmaster took a “soft” approach to allegations a sports coach was inappropriate with female pupils because he was a “success story”, a court heard.

Richard Poulton, headmaster of Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham between 1987 and 1996, told Brighton Crown Court on Thursday complaints against Ajaz Karim were dealt with “in-house” because he was a popular teacher who had been a Ugandan refugee and former pupil.

The 63-year-old, of Hammersmith, West London, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six girls aged 14 to 18 at the school between 1985 and 1993.

Allegations include him massaging a student’s “virtually naked body” while she lay face down on the floor of his locked study and pushing another up against a wall and kissing her on the lips.

Mr Poulton told jurors he knew of complaints from four pupils over three years before asking for Karim’s resignation. He said he made it “absolutely clear” to Karim his behaviour was unacceptable after the first two were made in 1990.

Then the father of another student wrote to Mr Poulton in 1992, claiming Karim was making unwanted visits to his daughter’s room.

Karim left the school in 1993 after what Mr Poulton branded the “last straw” – when another student said she complained of inappropriate massages and kissing.

Dressed in a blue pin-stripe suit, white shirt, blue tie, and using a walking stick, Mr Poulton apologised on several occasions for the “vagueness” of his memory.

When asked why he did not sack Karim, the 75-year-old said: “[Asking for his resignation] was perhaps a soft way of bringing our contract to an end.In many ways he was very popular. He was a success story in Christ’s Hospital terms having come to us as a refugee and being given an education [before returning to teach].”

The school continued to pay his salary for another month after he left.

Mr Poulton said he had no knowledge of any of the allegations being “sexual”, describing the complaints as those of “over familiarity”, “undue physicality” and a “threat of massage”.

He said police and social services were not involved and claimed deputy head Elizabeth Cairncross – now the principal of Wells Cathedral School in Somerset – mainly handled the complaints and would deal with anything of a “female” or “intimate” nature from students.

He added: “It was totally dealt with by school masters and school mistresses and denied by Mr Karim.”

When asked if he knew one of the claims involved Karim giving a student a “full frontal body massage”, he said: “Outrageous, I never heard that alleged. I would have reported that to the police even though that was not protocol at that time.”

But in a letter to solicitors acting on behalf of Karim in October 1993 – a month after he left – Mr Poulton, referring to complaints by students, said: “Despite possible interpretations of its very explicit contents, I did not charge Mr Karim with sexual harassment.”

When asked in defence cross-examination if he was “covering his back” with the letter, Mr Poulton said: “I didn’t see and don’t see it was covering my back. I hope I did what was right in the circumstances.

Mr Poulton said the school had no written rule against teachers touching female pupils because it was “so obvious” and “common sense”, adding: “It was absolutely clear that it was forbidden.”

The trial continues on Friday.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16156068.Allegations_against_teacher___39_dealt_with_in_house_as_he_was_success_story__39_/

10 Apr 2018

Christ’s Hospital School ‘warned girl of her name going in press over coach kissing allegations’

A top private school warned a “vulnerable” teenage pupil her name could appear in the press if they dealt publicly with allegations a sports coach kissed her, a court heard.

An alleged victim claims she was given two options by Christ’s Hospital School when her complaint about Ajaz Karim was brought to their attention – for the matter to be handled “very publicly” with her running the risk of being identified, or for him to be asked to leave the school.

Footage of the woman’s police interview was played to Brighton Crown Court on Tuesday as she discussed a series of alleged incidents in around 1992 or 1993 at the Horsham public school.

Karim, 63, of Hammersmith, West London, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six girls aged 14 to 18 at the school between 1985 and 1993.

He has since worked at Eton College, Queen’s Club, The Hurlingham Club, as well as the London branches of Champneys and Credit Suisse.

During the interview in May 2016, the woman told officers she started having “special (coaching) sessions” with Karim and he kept “name-dropping celebrities” when talking about his work at Champneys health club.

She said he started giving her massages while she was partially naked, telling police: “When you trust somebody, you go with it. He was a teacher, he was helping me.”

On another occasion he pushed her up against a wall in a boarding house, the court heard.

She said: “He kissed me on my face and then on my mouth. And I couldn’t move my arms because he was holding them.”

The following academic year she said she agreed to let a friend tell the senior management team – headmaster Richard Poulton, deputy head Elizabeth Cairncross and housemaster Bob Sillett – on the condition her name was not given and no action was taken.

She said she felt “ashamed and uncomfortable” and only wanted the matter on record should anyone else come forward in the future. But her friend said the teachers knew it was her and that other complaints had already been made.

Jurors heard how she was asked to speak to Mr Sillett in the evening and write a statement.

She said: “(He told me) I have a choice. We can either go very public. His (Karim’s) name would be dragged through the press. I was told he was married and has a young family.”

But she said there was an implication her name could be published, adding: “It was just completely not what a 17 or 18-year-old who was trying to do the right thing wanted to hear.

“Or (I was told) we can make it known to him that you have come forward and make him resign.”

She said she chose the latter, adding: “I completely put my trust in them (the school) that they had my best interests at heart.”

Afterwards she said she felt “very isolated” when Karim continued to teach her, claiming others were “frustrated” with her when he then left because they had “listened to a load of waffle he had told them”.

She added: “The whole thing was really poorly handled.

“It has taken me a really long time to get my head around it. I have written off a chunk of my life because of my experience.”

Mrs Cairncross – who worked at the school between 1986 and 2000 – described the alleged victim as “vulnerable” and said she was the third girl she was aware of who had complained about Karim.

Giving evidence, the current principal of Wells Cathedral School in Somerset told the court she was Christ Hospital’s designated child protection officer at the time of the allegations but headmaster Mr Poulton was in charge of safeguarding.

She said she “could not recall” when the first two girls – who spoke to her together – made the complaints but during a meeting staff held with Karim he “strongly denied” the allegations and was “defensive”.

She said after the third complaint was made, Karim was on what would now be described as a “final warning”, adding: “He was told to leave the school. He was dismissed.”

The trial continues.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16149913.School___39_warned_girl_of_her_name_going_in_press_over_coach_kissing_allegations__39_/

JPCT 311213 S14020019x Roger Sillett MBE, Billingshurst -photo by Steve Cobb

Freemason Bob Sillett

Image result for "Dr Robert David Taylor Sillett"

Dr Robert David Taylor Sillett, MBE

‘It has been a great honour for me to have been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours. The citation is for services to the community and helping others.

All my many friends in Freemasonry both Provincially, Nationally and Internationally have been very supportive of one aspect of my work since retirement in 2001. It was very clear to me at the time that there was a void in my life that needed filling. Raising money for Down Syndrome Education International has been one area and I thank all those Freemasons who have helped me raise a lot of money through my presentations in several degrees.

‘Serving the needs of others was constantly in my mind during my professional career at Christ’s Hospital.

https://www.freemasonrytoday.com/more-news/the-queen-s-new-year-s-honours-list-2014-freemasons

Image result for "mbe" + "robert sillett"

Dr. Robert Sillett from Billingshurst is made an MBE by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo.  Thursday May 1, 2014

link

Robert David Sillett

Board Member at Downs Education International

Experience

Position, Academic Staff – CH Publications

President – Band

Position, Academic Staff – Switzerland

Position, Staff – Christ’s Hospital

Deputy Head – Christ’s Hospital

Affiliations

Member of the Building Committee – Sports Centre

Recent News

Bob Sillett Bob has been nominated to carry the Olympic Flame with Lloyds TSB in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. Bob Sillett retired from teaching in 2001 …

Bob Sillett Bob has been nominated to carry the Olympic Flame with Lloyds TSB in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. Bob Sillett retired from teaching in 2001 after 38 years of service ending his career as deputy head at Christ’s Hospital School, a school for disadvantaged children. Since then he has lectured all over the world and raised over £50,000 for the Downs Educational Research Trust which works to support children with Downs Syndrome with their learning. He is now a Director of Downs Education International.He is also a governor at Christ’s Hospital School, a Chairman of the Trustees at Dauxwood Pre-school in Billingshurst West Sussex and a mentor to hundreds of former pupils of his school.

http://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/new-year-honours-for-2014/

Former Deputy Head of Christ’s Hospital, Dr Robert Sillett (pictured) has become an MBE for services to the local community and to charity.Dr Sillett was appoin…

CHA and Christ’s Hospital-related Events

The Chairman was Bob Sillett, the Responder was Harriet Griffiths (nee Richmond) and the Chief Steward was Ian Rodgers. Bob Sillett in front of the CH Dining Ha…

Bob Sillett, from Billingshurst, was awarded an MBE earlier this week for his charity work.

On my compulsory retirement in 2001, at the relatively young age of 61 I found adjustment to life outside the school difficult. A conscious decision was taken to become involved again in as many areas as possible. Part time teaching, academic coaching, serving on many committees and being a trustee of many organisations. The range was considerable from being a director and trustee of Downs Education

International, the Benevolent Society of Blues, involvement in the church initially at Billingshurst and now at Wisborough Green and being a holding trustee at the remarkably efficient Dauxwood Pre-school in Billingshurst,

I was appointed to the academic staff of Christ’s Hospital in September 1963. I was on the staff for 38 years and covered a whole range of roles within the school – rugby coach, cricket coach, science teacher, careers master, housemaster and finally deputy head. It was in my capacity as a housemaster for 14 years I was made very aware of my responsibility of caring for the boys in my boarding housemany of whom were from single parent backgrounds.

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/billingshurst-man-reacts-to-mbe-recognition-1-5782067


Top private school allowed teacher to continue working after sex assault allegations

File photo dated 03/05/18 of Ajaz Karim, who will stand trial at Brighton Crown Court, where he is accused of sexually abusing students at a top private school between 1985 and 1993. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Ajaz Karim

Apr 9 2018

Christ’s Hospital School ‘failed to report sexual abuse claim’

A private school did not report to police allegations that a sports teacher sexually assaulted a pupil, a court has heard.

Ajaz Karim, from west London, denies a string of indecent assaults on teenage pupils at Christ’s Hospital School, West Sussex, from 1985 to 1993.

Senior staff at the school were aware of the claims against Mr Karim, a former pupil told Brighton Crown Court.

The 63-year-old is accused of carrying out “wholly unnecessary” massages.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall said that, between 1985 and 1987, Mr Karim massaged a 14-year-old girl’s “virtually naked body” and touched her inappropriately after telling her to lie face down on the floor of his locked study.

His alleged victim said she first confided in a school friend a year or two later and then spoke to teachers about four years after she said the encounter happened.

Image result for Elizabeth Cairncross

Elizabeth Cairncross

The court heard the school’s headmaster from 1987 to 1996, Richard Poulton, had been given a “detailed statement” of the girl’s complaint, and Elizabeth Cairncross – the deputy head between 1985 and 2000, who is now the principal of Wells Cathedral School in Somerset – was also aware.

Speaking from behind a screen, the alleged victim said: “Mr Karim touched my body in ways that made me feel deeply uncomfortable. Of that I am certain.

“As far as I am aware no report was made to the police by the school.”

Mr Karim is accused of nine indecent assaults and one attempted indecent assault against six girls aged 14 to 18.

Another alleged victim told the jury there was “no misunderstanding” that he tried to kiss her when they were alone.

She said Mr Karim had told her he wanted to “give her a treat” for doing well in a sports session.

“There is no doubt in my mind he tried to kiss me. As I ran away I could hear him laughing,” she added.

The trial continues.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-43703993

Image result for "Elizabeth Cairncross" + "hrh"

Elizabeth Cairncross  with HRH the Duke of Gloucester

https://wells.cathedral.school/2017/06/19/hrh-the-duke-of-gloucester-visit/

Image result for ELIZABETH CAROLINE CAIRNCROSS + charity

2016 Dr Andy Kemp & Elizabeth Cairncross & Camilla

Wells Cathedral Sshool

The current principal is Elizabeth Cairncross with Dr Andy Kemp as head of the school and vice-principal, Julie Barrow as head of the junior school. Cairncross has been headmistress since 2000 and was previously Senior Mistress at Christs Hospital where she was for 15 years, the Royal Family holds links with the school, many of the buildings being opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on 6 July 1979. Queen Elizabeth II visited the school during her Silver Jubilee tour in 1977, the Countess of Wessex visited Wells on 18 October 2007 and has done so several times subsequently.

https://wikivisually.com/wiki/The_Institute_of_Contemporary_Music_Performance


Trustees of Wells Cathedral School:

Trustees inc MRS ELIZABETH CAROLINE CAIRNCROSS,

LORD ARMSTRONG OF ILMINSTER GCB CVO (Former Prime minister Ted Heath’s defender and friend)

http://opencharities.org/charities/1118159

Image result for paedophiles + LORD ARMSTRONG

Lord Armstrong:

From 1970 to 1974, Robert Armstrong was Prime Minister Edward Heath‘s Private Secretary.

When allegations of child sexual abuse against Sir Edward Heath emerged in 2015,[2] ten years after his death, Lord Armstrong said he had “never felt a whiff of sexuality about Ted Heath, whether it was in relation to women, men or children”.

Armstrong was aware of Sir Peter Hayman’s paedophilia, and since leaving office, has commented “Clearly, I was aware of it at the time but I was not concerned with the personal aspect of it.”[5]

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Robert_Armstrong

Elizabeth Cairncross, Principal

Elizabeth Cairncross  – Deputy Head  Christ’s Hospital School 1986-2000

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-cairncross-7b915b27/

Ajaz Karim denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six girls aged 14 to 18 at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex, between 1985 and 1993.

Complaints made against him in the early 1990s led him to leave the school, Brighton Crown Court heard on Friday.

The 63-year-old, of Hammersmith in West London, has since worked at Eton College, Queen’s Club, The Hurlingham Club, and has links to London branches of Champneys and Credit Suisse.

Karim is accused of carrying out “wholly unnecessary” massages, kissing a pupil on the lips and trying to “snog” another when he worked at the prestigious Horsham school.

Eloise Marshall, prosecuting, told the court between 1985 and 1987 he massaged a 14-year-old girl’s “virtually naked body” after telling her to lie face down on the floor of his locked study.

Jurors heard how he told her to keep her eyes closed while he put music on and touched her inappropriately.

The alleged victim said she told the school while she was still a pupil but only reported the incident to police decades later – prompted by other complainants who had the “courage” to come forward.

In a recorded police interview played to the jury, she described Karim as “smarmy”.

She added: “I remember feeling very uncomfortable and knowing something was wrong and not quite knowing how to deal with the situation or how to get out of it and feeling very powerless.”

She said initially she did not tell anyone because she was “freaked out” but later confided in schoolfriends and teachers.

She said after telling the school she was “slightly horrified to discover that he continued to teach”, adding: “I hoped the school would act on our information but I don’t believe anything like that happened.”

She said she and a schoolfriend were questioned about the incident in separate rooms and she provided a “detailed four-page statement” to Richard Poulton, the headmaster at the time.

She told the police officer she did not report the allegations earlier because she had told the school and previously felt that was “as far as she could take it”.

Dressed in a dark suit, Karim watched the footage from the dock taking notes and shook his head when the woman burst into tears while recalling the details of the alleged encounter.

Ms Marshall told the court: “Mr Karim used his position as a member of staff and his role in the sports department at the school to use massage of these girls as a subterfuge for touching them sexually.

“They didn’t all appreciate at the time that the touching was sexual but all say they felt uncomfortable.

“The crown say (his behaviour) was inappropriate and unnecessary.”

Another woman claimed that aged 14 he found her alone and was “pretty certain he was going to snog” her.

“He found it funny and she was shocked by his audacity,” Ms Marshall said.

Karim denied the allegations when he was arrested and interviewed in 2016, claiming he was teaching the girls breathing and relaxation techniques and when he did massage them it was to help them bend their legs.

Another girl who complained to the school claiming he kissed her on the lips but he said it was a peck on the cheek.

Founded in the 16th century, Christ’s Hospital charges boarders up to £31,500 a year.

Over the course of two weeks evidence will be heard from the alleged victims, witnesses and senior staff at the school at the time.

The trial continues on Monday.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news/top-private-school-allowed-teacher-to-continue-working-after-sex-assault-allegations-36782021.html

Richard Poulton, Headmaster of Christ’s Hospital (1987–1996)

https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/richard-poulton-headmaster-of-christs-hospital-19871996-69841

Richard Poulton

Student at King’s College, Taunton; Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; Pembroke College, Cambridge.

 

The Regents Schoolis a coeducational boarding school. It has campuses in Pattaya and Bangkok in Thailand.

History

The Regents School was founded in Pattaya in 1995 by Dr. Virachai Techavijit and started as a small Primary School serving the families of expatriates who worked at the nearby industrial port. The schools first headmaster was Richard Poulton who had previously been Head at Christs Hospital School in the United Kingdom. He was succeeded by Simon Leslie, former Head of Geelong Grammar School,inVictoria, Australia. The current Principal of the Pattaya Campus is Mike Walton.

The School has a second campus in Bangkok (Principal: Martin Kneath) and an Outdoor Education Centre on Thailands second largest island, Ko Chang, near the Thai border with Cambodia.

http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2998338

 

 

 

 

(Left to Right) ISR Headmaster Simon Leslie, Sally Poulton (wife of Richard) and special guest for the day Mr Richard Poulton, founding Headmaster of ISR.

http://www.pattayamail.com/348/features.htm

The International School of the Regents

The Regent’s School in Pattaya where Richard Poulton (Headmaster 86-96) was the founding head.

https://archive.is/Liqh#selection-64239.128-64243.23

Richard Poulton

Headmaster of Wycliffe College
Headmaster of Christ’s Hospital
Governor of seven schools at both
primary and secondary level

Christ’s Hospital School

Ex-public school teacher, Ajaz Karim,  on trial over sex abuse

THE trial of a former sports teacher accused of sexually abusing students at a top public school has been delayed after his barrister was taken to hospital.

Ajaz Karim, 63, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six girls at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, between 1985 and 1993.

As well as working as head coach at the school for ten years from 1985, the sports consultant held the same position at Eton College for eight years from 2008, and also at The Hurlingham Club for 12 years, from 2003, as well as being head of squash at Queen’s Club for 32 years until last year, according to his Linkedin profile.

He was due to stand trial on Tuesday at Brighton Crown Court but the proceedings were delayed after his defence barrister Jonathan Davies sustained a head injury.

Calling Karim, of Hammersmith in West London, into court to explain the delay, Judge Christine Henson said: “Your barrister Mr Davies had an accident this morning and is currently in hospital. He is seeing a doctor at the moment but realistically, given the time and given he has hit his head and isn’t feeling very well, it seems we are not going to be able to make any progress today.”

She released Karim on bail to return to court today when the trial is now expected to begin.

The prosecution is part of a wider police investigation into separate allegations of abuse by other former teachers at the school.

In a separate trial former Christ’s Hospital School teacher Garry Dobbie was originally accused of ten counts of indecent assault, one attempted indecent assault and two counts of indecency against men and women.

The 66-year-old pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of indecent assault of a man between November and December 2001 at a hearing also at Brighton Crown Court yesterday. Dobbie, of Albi in France and formerly of Hereford, is due to stand trial next month alongside another ex-teacher, James Husband.

The 68-year-old, of Wigginton in York, denies four counts of rape and five counts of indecently assaulting a woman.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16135156.Ex_public_school_teacher_on_trial_over_sex_abuse/


 

Sex abuse teacher Peter Burr’s jail term extended

 28 March 2018
Peter Burr
Peter Burr, now aged 73, was jailed in January

A former boarding school teacher who abused four pupils in the 1960s and 1970s has had his sentence increased.

Peter Burr, of south Devon, admitted indecently assaulting boys at Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, and was jailed in January at Hove Crown Court.

Appeal judges increased his four-year term to six years and seven months.

After the hearing, Solicitor General Robert Buckland said Burr, now 73, had betrayed his position of trust “in the most despicable way possible”.

Mr Buckland appealed against the original sentence handed to Burr, from Kingswear, who assaulted boys aged 11 to 14 between 1969 and 1973.

He said: “I trust this sends a clear message that justice will be served no matter how long ago the offences took place.

“I hope this helps the victims to get some closure.”

The Attorney General’s Office said the pupils at the private school were largely vulnerable young boys from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Some had gained a place at the school following the death of a family member and had been separated from their families.

One of Burr’s four victims came forward after hearing a feature on BBC London about sexual abuse.

Arthur, who waived his anonymity, but decided not to reveal his surname, said three years of abuse had affected the rest of his life.

Headmaster of the school Simon Reid said: “My thoughts are very much with the victims whose lives have no doubt been deeply affected.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-43576732

A former Christ’s Hospital School teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing four boys has had his sentence increased following an appeal by the Solicitor General. Peter Burr, 73, of The Square, Kingsware, Devon, was originally sentenced to four years’ imprisonment at Hove Crown Court, in January 2018. However, Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP appealed the sentence on the grounds it was too low. The appeal was successful and today (March 28) Burr’s sentence was increased to six years and seven months, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said: “I am pleased the Court of Appeal has increased the sentence. I trust this sends a clear message that justice will be served no matter how long ago the offences took place. I hope this helps the victims to get some closure.” Burr ­– a former house tutor and physics teacher at the independent school – previously pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault against four young boys. He became the second former teacher of Christ’s Hospital School to be jailed for historic indecent assault after Peter Webb – a former woodwork teacher and housemaster at the school – was sentenced after pleading guilty to eleven counts of indecent assault. Webb was originally sentenced to four years in prison, in December 2017, but – following an appeal by the Attorney General – had his sentence increased to five years and six months in February 2018.

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/former-christ-s-hospital-teacher-s-sentence-increased-following-appeal-1-8435985

Peter Webb. Picture: Eddie Mitchell

Peter Webb.
Former Christ Hospital teacher’s sentence increased after appeal
Feb 28 2018

A former Christ’s Hospital School teacher who was jailed for indecently assaulting four boys has had his sentence increased, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Peter Webb, 75, of Kennedy Road, Dane End, Ware, Hertfordshire, was originally sentenced to four years in prison, at Lewes Crown Court, in December 2017. However, Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP appealed the sentence on the grounds it was too low and, following a Court of Appeal decision, Webb’s sentence was increased to five years and six months, the Attorney General said. Webb – a former woodwork teacher and housemaster at Christ’s Hospital School – pleaded guilty to eleven offences of indecent assault against four boys when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court in October 2017. He pleaded not guilty to another alleged incident against a fifth boy which the court ordered to remain on court file. Speaking after the appeal hearing, the Attorney General said: “His victims lost their innocence and for that his crimes deserved a tougher sentence. I hope the increased sentence can bring some comfort to all those affected.”

https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/former-christ-hospital-teacher-s-sentence-increased-after-appeal-1-8396465


Former Christ’s Hospital teacher jailed for sexually abusing pupils

Peter Burr given four years after admitting nine counts of indecent assault on boys aged 11 to 14 between 1969 and 1973

Ex-private school teacher caught after victim confessed to Feltz radio show

08 January 2018
 

A retired teacher from a leading private school was caught for sexually abusing pupils after a victim revealed his ordeal to Vanessa Feltz’s radio show after claiming he was initially ignored by police.
One of the victims tried to report the crimes to officers at Horsham Police Station in 2000 but felt he was being “batted back” and no further action was taken, prosecutor Ahmed Hossain said.

It was not until December 3 2016 that the victim was prompted to email the producer of Feltz’s BBC Radio London programme when she discussed the football abuse scandal. The producer put him in touch with detectives and an investigation was launched after he made contact with police in February last year. Burr, 73, is the West Sussex school’s second former teacher to be jailed in as many months in separate prosecutions. Judge Christine Henson said he had demonstrated a “gross abuse of trust” and preyed on vulnerable boys who were reluctant to speak out after they had been given a place at the school because a parent had died or their family had a low income.

Three more men are due in court later this year. Police have said the prosecutions are not linked. Ajaz Karim, 63, who lives in London, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six female pupils. He is due to stand trial in April. James Husband, 67, of York, is accused of four counts of rape and five counts of indecently assaulting a woman. Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against two men, as well as three counts of indecently assaulting two women. Husband and Dobbie deny the charges and are due to stand trial in May.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/ex-private-school-teacher-caught-after-victim-confessed-to-feltz-radio-show-1-8941197

Peter Burr, 73, of The Square, Kingswear, admitted nine counts of indecent assault between 1969 and 1973 on young boys at Christ’s Hospital School, a boarding school in Horsham, West Sussex.

Burr was well-known in the area. He could often be found at the Ship Inn in Kingswear or the Windjammer in Dartmouth.

Jan Henshall, chairman of Kingswear Parish Council, said: “I believe he was a member of Royal Dart Yacht Club. In the past, he attended the senior citizens lunch at Christmas in the village. He had a social life here and was well-known.

Burr attended St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Dartmouth.

Richard Rendle said: “I am disappointed because I thought he was a gentleman. I know he helped at the Regatta with classic craft and was a member of the Probus Club in Dartmouth.”

http://www.dartmouth-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=110832&headline=Retired%20teacher%20is%20jailed%20for%20indecent%20assaults&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

Jason Byrne, of Kingswear Post Office:

He always kept himself to himself. If he was going away, he would not give any details. He would just say I’m going to see some friends, whereas as other people might say where they are going or have been.”

http://www.kingsbridge-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=110832&headline=Retired%20teacher%20is%20jailed%20for%20indecent%20assaults&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

 

CHURCHES

Parish Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Church Hill. Parochial Church Council. Secretary Lorna Usher Tel: 01803 752636.

Roman Catholic Church, St. John The Baptist, 20, Newcomen Road, Dartmouth. Peter Burr Tel:

http://www.kingswear-devon.co.uk/services.htm

 Peter Burr of Kingswear Combined Charities

2014

Peter Burr of Kingswear Combined Charities was presented with £400 towards the annual village firework display,

http://www.kingswear-devon.co.uk/APM.htm

2012

This year the regatta sponsored a children’s entertainer for the diamond jubilee street party and on Friday presented Peter Burr of Kingswear Combined Charities with £600 towards the firework display.

http://www.dartmouth.org.uk/news/comments/lifeboats_benefit_from_regatta_windfall#.WluKinlG3bg

If you would like any further information on how you might support the charity or if you would like the trustees to consider a grant application please contact in the first instance the Secretary, Peter Burr

Kingswear Combined Charities

Kingswear Combined Charities is a local charity committed to supporting the welfare of children in Kingswear through the funding of recreational/extra curricular activities or community events.

Its roots purportedly go back to pre-1940 when a local spinster ran a youth club in the village – Kingswear Children’s Social Club.   In the intervening years the charity has morphed according to legal necessities and changes in the village and its inhabitants but it is still committed to the support of activities for local children.

One of its main concerns is the organisation and funding of Kingswear’s Annual Firework Display at Waterhead Creek –

The Charity is managed by 5 local trustees who meet twice a year and grants are given in the region from £50 – £500. Support in the past has been given to the local Tae Kwondo club, Kingswear Village School, and a number of individuals who have needed financial assistance in their sporting/life-enriching endeavours.

https://www.bythedart.co.uk/blogs/around-kingswear/around-kingswear-july-2013/

Peter Burr
Peter Burr is the second former teacher from the private school near Horsham to be jailed in as many months. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

A former top private school teacher has been jailed for sexually abusing four of his pupils.

Peter Burr, the house tutor and physics teacher, was jailed at Hove crown court on Friday after admitting nine counts of indecently assaulting the boys aged between 11 and 14 at Christ’s Hospital between 1969 and 1973.

The judge, Christine Henson QC, initially sentenced him to 42 months in prison and concluded the hearing.

Moments later, the parties were called back to court.

Henson returned to say she had read out the wrong figure and sentenced him to 48 months instead. She added that her views on sentencing had not changed.

Burr is the second former teacher from the boarding school near Horsham, West Sussex, to be jailed in as many months.

Henson said he displayed a pattern of preying on his victims in a “gross abuse of trust”.

She continued: “You had unlimited access to vulnerable young boys separated from their families. They obtained a place at the school because of the death of a parent or a low income. This strengthened their reluctance to speak out about you.”

Burr, 73, of Kingswear, near Dartmouth in Devon, was handed concurrent sentences for each victim and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

Burr would invite pupils to visit his study for tea and cake before fondling them, the court heard.

One survivor described how Burr would entice them with chocolate biscuits, which were seen as a treat.

Ahmed Hossain, for the prosecution, said who was a house tutor as well as a physics teacher, would also become sexually aroused when he played with them in the swimming pool.

One of the survivors tried to report the crimes to officers at Horsham police station in 2000 but felt he was being “batted back” and no further action was taken, Hossain said.

It was not until 3 December 2016 that the former pupil was prompted to email the producer of Vanessa Feltz’s BBC Radio London programme when she discussed the football abuse scandal.

The producer put him in touch with detectives and an investigation was launched after he made contact with police in February last year.

Burr’s prosecution is part of a wider investigation into allegations of abuse by former teachers at the school.

A former house master, Peter Webb, 74, was jailed for four years in December.

Three more men are due in court later this year. Police have said the prosecutions are not linked.

Ajaz Karim, 63, who lives in London, denies nine charges of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against six female pupils. He is to stand trial in April.

James Husband, 67, of York, is accused of four counts of rape and five counts of indecently assault against a woman.

Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi in France, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one attempted indecent assault against two boys, as well as three counts of indecently assaulting two women.

Husband and Dobbie deny the charges and are to stand trial in May.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/05/former-christs-hospital-teacher-jailed-for-sexually-abusing-pupils

Four other charges of indecent assault which he denied were left to lie on file.

Detective Inspector Wendy Burton said the victim who was on Feltz’s show did not tell officers about his previous contact with police and they could find ‘no record of his making contact or reporting any allegations in 2000’.

She said the case was investigated fully in 2017 and she moved to reassured victims that such allegations are taken seriously.

The school has not commented.

Peter Burr has been sentenced to a total of 48 months for a series of sex offences against pupils atChrist’s Hospital School.

Image result for Peter Burr, christ's hospital school

Peter Burr, 72, retired, of The Square, Kingswear, Dartmouth, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Friday after admitting nine offences of indecent assault on four boy pupils aged between 11 and 14, between 1969 and 1973, while he was a physics teacher and assistant housemaster at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.

Burr will also be a registered sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last indefinitely, severely restricting his access to young people.

Burr lived in one of the rooms off the house dormitory in his charge, and supervised boys living there during prep and lights out, and in other daily activities around the school.

Detective Constable Rebecca Wilde of the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit said: “He clearly focused his sexual attentions on boys between and 11 and 13 in his house, leaving older boys alone.

“Some of the offences took place in his study during informal Wednesday and Sunday afternoon gatherings to watch TV, with tea, biscuits and cake on offer. To be invited was regarded as a great privilege and he took advantage of this, and his status, to systematically touch and molest three of the victims.

“The fourth victim was assaulted in the dormitory area and at the school swimming pool.

“The four boys kept these traumatic experiences largely to themselves for up to 48 years and moved on with their lives.

“We were first told about Burr in February 2017, when one of the victims came forward, triggered by hearing a local radio debate in London on the recently publicised football sex abuse scandal, and believing that insufficient attention was given to cases in which offenders were not public celebrities.

One of the others later came forward after the School advised ex-pupils of the ongoing investigation.

https://www.spiritfm.net/news/sussex-news/2470638/man-jailed-for-sex-offences-against-boys-at-west-sussex-school/

christs hospital school

Ex-Teacher Sentenced for Sex Offences at Christ’s Hospital School

January 9, 2018

An ex-teacher has been sentenced to a total of four years imprisonment for a series of sex offences against pupils at a West Sussex public school.

Peter Burr, 72, retired, of The Square, Kingswear, Dartmouth, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Friday (5 January) after admitting nine offences of indecent assault on four boy pupils aged between 11 and 14, between 1969 and 1973, while he was a physics teacher and assistant housemaster at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham.

He had pleaded not guilty to four other indecent assaults and these were directed to lay on the court file, not proceeded with.

Burr will also be a registered sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last indefinitely, severely restricting his access to young people.

Burr lived in one of the rooms off the house dormitory in his charge, and supervised boys living there during prep and lights out, and in other daily activities around the school.

Detective Constable Rebecca Wilde of the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit said; “He clearly focused his sexual attentions on boys between and 11 and 13 in his house, leaving older boys alone.

“Some of the offences took place in his study during informal Wednesday and Sunday afternoon gatherings to watch TV, with tea, biscuits and cake on offer. To be invited was regarded as a great privilege and he took advantage of this, and his status, to systematically touch and molest three of the victims.

“The fourth victim was assaulted in the dormitory area and at the school swimming pool.

“The four boys kept these traumatic experiences largely to themselves for up to 48 years and moved on with their lives.

“We were first told about Burr in February last year, when one of the victims came forward, triggered by hearing a local radio debate in London on the recently publicised football sex abuse scandal, and believing that insufficient attention was given to cases in which offenders were not public celebrities.

“One of the others later came forward after the School advised ex-pupils of the ongoing investigation.

“This is an important reminder that such reports will always be taken seriously, however long ago they are said to have happened.”

http://bjournal.co/ex-teacher-sentenced-for-sex-offences-at-horsham-public-school/

CH Forum
In 1979 at university I met a fellow undergrad who had been at the school Burr taught at after he left CH. His unprompted concerns at Burr’s behaviour there echoed the rumours that circulated CH during Burr’s time at Horsham. This has worried me greatly for nearly 40 years now – was Burr warned off from CH but allowed to find another school to employ him without full disclosure of why he left? The school he moved to is alas lost to my memory, but perhaps someone here will know.
CH does need to provide answers about what was known about these men at the time. Burr for example was allowed to come back to join the Scouts on holidays until well into the 1990s. What on earth was going on there?

I started at the school in September 1971 and so I knew both of these men as teachers at the school.

I knew nothing of the reasons for Burr leaving but did hear that Webb left suddenly.

Looking back, it is unbelievable that these men were allowed to take pupils on unchaperoned boating holidays on the Norfolk Broads.

I think that Webb’s preferences were both obvious and well known.

At some stage in the late 1970s Burr turned up at the Oratory School near Reading.

As I remember, Peter Burr (PPdeWB) was master i/c at first

I have heard my husband say this set of initials so many times, when remembering pranks at the Ffestiniog Railway in the 60s. The name was Peter Burr it must be the same person.

PPdeWB was definately Peter “Potty” Burr who taught me Physics in 1970

He affected a sort of wild eccentricity and however funny he was you were not supposed to laugh

One punishment he gave me was a 200 lone essay on “Puncyuality and Punctiliousness” for being late

He had a narrowboat called The Empress of blandings and would murder anyone who referred to it as a barge!

I recall on my first camp in Welford in 1993, Burr was there with his barge

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KV5GrHxi_RIJ:www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D708%26start%3D15+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1

1970s…The Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme was started at the Oratory school

!979, Peter Burr and Paul Keddie had arrived on staff to assist with the RN section and the arduous training.  The flow of boys into the services continued.

Oratorian 2013 pg 17

Jonathan O’Brien appeal: Former The Oratory School teacher loses bid to cut sentence

Jonathan Philip O’Brien, 57, sexually abused boys aged 10 to 16 while working at The Oratory School in Woodcote and schools in Worcestershire in the 1980s.

16 JAN 2015

The Oratory School in Woodcote

A teacher who sexually abused private school pupils more than 30 years ago must accept his “very substantial” jail term, top judges have ruled.

Jonathan O'Brien outside Chichester Crown Court in November 2013. Picture by Eddie Mitchell

Jonathan Philip O’Brien, 57, subjected boys aged 10 to 16 to his vile advances while working at The Oratory School in Woodcote and schools in Worcestershire in the 1980s.

O’Brien, of Fairfield Road, Bosham, near Chichester, was jailed for 13 years at Chichester Crown Court last May, after being convicted of 15 counts of indecent assault.

On Thursday, January 15 three senior judges at London’s Appeal Court rejected a sentence challenge by the disgraced sir, saying his jail term was not manifestly excessive.

Mrs Justice Swift said O’Brien would “exploit” the loneliness of some pupils, plying others with alcohol and cigarettes and showing them pornographic films.

He would also make those who were religious “swear on the Bible” not to tell.

She added he would lure pupils to a photographic darkroom and sexually abuse them at Winterfold House School, near Kidderminster and he later continued his “shameful” exploitation for several years at The Oratory. In all, he abused nine boys.

O’Brien was forced to leave The Oratory in the late 1980s after one of his victims complained to the school.

However, his crimes never fully came to light until February 2013, when one of the victims told police.

The paedophile, who set up his own business and married in the intervening years, denied any wrongdoing but was convicted.

Jurors also convicted him of five counts of gross indecency with a child, however, those convictions were later quashed by the Court of Appeal.

O’Brien continues to deny any wrongdoing, shows no remorse and claims he is the “innocent victim of a conspiracy”.

On appeal, O’Brien’s barrister, David Whittaker, argued the 13-year jail term was “manifestly excessive”.

He said the judge failed to give proper weight to O’Brien’s mitigation, including his lack of offending since the abuse.

But Mrs Justice Swift, sitting with Lord Justice Pitchford and Judge Paul Batty QC, said: “We consider the judge was right to say that ‘a graver abuse of trust is difficult to imagine’.

“The total sentence is indeed very substantial, but rightly so, we consider, given the particular circumstances of this case.

“We are satisfied the total sentence of 13 years reflects the seriousness of these offences and cannot be regarded as manifestly excessive.”

The appeal judge also rejected a bid by O’Brien to challenge to the terms of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) which bar him from having contact with children after his release.

O’Brien claimed the SOPO was “disproportionate”. But Mrs Justice Swift said the order was necessary to protect children from O’Brien in the future.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/jonathan-obrien-appeal-former-oratory-8457926

David Hutchings, former deputy headteacher,  admitted five offences against two boys carried out when he was at Winterfold House School, in Chaddesley Corbett, Kidderminster, in the 1980s when it took boarders.

http://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/regional/15189371.Former_teacher_admits_sex_offences_against_teenage_boys/

 


Former housemaster at top private school jailed for abusing pupils

Peter Webb, 74, sentenced to four years in prison for abusing boys at Christ’s Hospital school in Horsham in 1970s and 80s

Peter Webb arrives at Hove crown court for sentencing.
Peter Webb arrives at Hove crown court for sentencing.
A former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham has been sentenced for historic sex offences against young boys. Peter Webb, 75, of Kennedy Road, Dane End, Ware, Hertfordshire, was sentenced to a total of four years imprisonment when he appeared at Hove Crown Court on Friday (December 15) for a series of sexual offences against four boys. Webb – a former woodwork teacher and housemaster at Christ’s Hospital School – previously pleaded guilty to eleven offences of indecent assault when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court, sitting in Brighton, on September 6, 2017.
The court heard how one boy was assaulted three times, another on two occasions, the third on five occasions and the fourth on one occasion. Webb pleaded not guilty to another alleged incident against a fifth boy which the court ordered to remain on court file. Webb had previously been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, in April 2015, after pleading guilty to three offences of historic indecent assault against another boy. On Friday, the court heard statements from three of the four victims who outlined the affect Webb’s abuse has had on their lives.
One of the victims said he had kept quiet until another victim contacted Sussex Police, in November 2016, inspiring him to come forward ‘to ensure nobody else experiences the same level of abuse’.
Defending, Simon Ray argued Webb’s decision to remove himself from being in contact with children or young boys as soon as he left Christ’s Hospital School should have accounted for a lesser sentence. He said: “Webb resigned from the school in 1984 and decided to abandon his career in teaching and, instead, chose to withdraw all contact completely to pursue a career in joinery. “He took all the practical steps he could after leaving the school to prevent being a risk to children and young boys in particular. “There have been no previous convictions recorded against him since leaving the school in 1984.”
Judge Christine Henson QC refused to accept this and argued that Webb missed an opportunity to plead guilty to all offences when he was convicted for separate incidents in 2015. In passing her sentence, she said: “You had the opportunity to wipe the slate clean in 2015 but you didn’t and now you are the author of your present situation. “I have read the impact your abusing has had on the lives of these four people. Their lives will be affected forever because of your offending.”
Webb was sentenced to two years and sixth months’ imprisonment for the first five offences to run consecutively with the 18 month sentence for the remaining six offences. In all, Webb was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and is now a registered sex offender for life. He will serve half his sentence in custody and half on licence. He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last until further court order, severely restricting his access to young people. Sussex Police had full co-operation from management at the school during both investigations, according to a police spokesman.
A former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, near Horsham, who admitted charges of historic indecent assault against five boys has had his sentencing adjourned. Peter Webb, 74, of Authon-Edeon, France, pleaded guilty to eleven counts of indecent assault when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court on September 6. He was due to be sentenced this morning but it has been postponed until November 2, Sussex Police said.
Former Christ’s Hospital teacher pleads guilty to historic sex offences
Peter Webb pleaded guilty to eleven counts of indecent assault against five boys. (Picture: Eddie Mitchell)

06 September 2017

A former teacher of Christ’s Hospital School, near Horsham, has this morning (September 6) been convicted of historic cases of indecent assault against five boys.
Peter Webb, 74, of Authon-Edeon, France, pleaded guilty to eleven charges of indecent assault when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court, sitting in Brighton, this morning. He was granted bail and is now expected to be sentenced on October 12 at Lewes Crown Court.
Gary Dobbie, a former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, is charged with non-recent sex offences. Picture: Eddie Mitchell
Three more former teachers of the school also appeared at Lewes Crown Court charged with historic sex offences. Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against two males, as well as three counts of indecent assault against two females. He spoke only to plead not guilty to all charges.
James Andrew Husband, a former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, is charged with non-recent sex offences. Picture: Eddie Mitchell
Appearing alongside Dobbie inside the dock on Wednesday morning was former colleague James Andrew Husband, 67, of Wigginton Road, York.
Husband is charged with four counts of rape and five counts of indecent assault against a female. He spoke only to plead not guilty to all charges. Both Dobbie and Husband have been bailed until May 29 for trial at Lewes Crown Court.
Ajaz Karim, 62, of Baron’s Court, London, is charged with nine counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against six females. Ajaz Karim, a former teacher from Christ’s Hospital School, charged with sex offences. Pic: Eddie Mitchell
Ajaz Karim  spoke only to plead not guilty to all charges. He has been bailed to appear before Lewes Crown Court for trial on April 3.

 


New headmaster at Christ’s Hospital – Simon Reid has been appointed headmaster
(safe pair of hands – Gordonstoun, Stowe etc.  Simon Reid worked at Christ’s Hospital School (Mr Reid, who held various posts there between 1993 and 2004, teaching English and serving as boarding house master.) when the alleged abuse occurred.

“Men who taught at Christ’s Hospital boarding school face total of 36 counts over alleged offences between 1980 and 1996

Simon Reid appointed headteacher at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham

 

Simon Reid, currently principal at Gordonstoun School, will take over from John Franklin, who retires in September. Christ’s Hospital should be familiar territory for Mr Reid, who held various posts there between 1993 and 2004, teaching English and serving as boarding house master. He said: “The bond with Christ’s Hospital and its values, which I formed during my first period at the school has drawn me back once again, this time with the honour to serve as headmaster.
“In my immediate predecessor, John Franklin, I have a tough act to follow. John’s tenure saw the school make considerable advances, with major improvements on the campus, an enhanced strategic and financial footing and greater connectedness to the wider community, nationally and worldwide. “Most of all, he kept the school true to its original mission to create opportunity for those in need. “I am looking forward to meeting the challenges ahead with commitment and dedication.”
Mr Reid has a BA in English and Politics and a Higher Diploma in Education. His wife Michèle teaches French -her native language – and they have two adult children. His interests include architectural and landscape photography, writing poetry, reading and skiing. Andrew Gordon, chairman of the board of school governors, said: “In Simon, we believe that we have found the perfect blend of experience, empathy with our unique ethos and charitable mission and the focused leadership qualities necessary to lead the school successfully in the next phase of its development.” As well as Gordonstoun, Mr Reid has taught at Brentwood, Stowe and Worksop College.
He spent seven years as deputy head at Worksop College before taking up his present position at Gordonstoun in 2011.
Gordonstoun – where several members of the Royal family have studied – is one of several independent schools in Scotland named by judge Lady Smith, who is conducting a national inquiry into historical abuse.

Police files on child sex abuse at Gordonstoun school have vanished

A teacher named Derek Jones seriously sexually assaulted a number of children attending the junior school around 1990. He was twice questioned by police in the following years after the children told their parents what had happened. Files were forwarded to the Procurator Fiscal, Scotland’s prosecution service, but it was decided not to prosecute. The files would normally be retained, but Scotland’s Crown Office says they now cannot be found.

Teacher at prince’s public school Gordonstoun accused of sex abuse

Andrew Keir, 65, a retired physics teacher now living in Cheshire, appeared in court last week charged with acting in a lewd and indecent manner to two 13-year-old pupils over five months in 1988 and 1989.

Gordonstoun

Disgraced housemaster found guilty of grooming pupils at top Scots school used by royals and rich

Disgraced Andrew Keir

Andrew Keir was convicted of offences involving 13-year-olds.

9 MAR 2018

A former assistant housemaster at a Scots boarding school used by royals and the rich and famous has been found guilty of grooming pupils.

Disgraced Andrew Keir, 67, was convicted of a string of lewd and indecent offences involving 13-year-old boys in his care almost three decades ago.

A sheriff took just 20 minutes to find the retired physics teacher at Gordonstoun, Morayshire, guilty of the charges after a three-day trial at Elgin Sheriff Court.

Immediately after the verdict the school – where Prince Philip and his sons princes Charles, Andrew and Edward were taught, and David Bowie’s son Zowie – apologised.

A spokeswoman said: “During the trial it became clear that the school’s response at the time of the offences was not as robust and rigorous as it would be now, and we are very sorry for this.

“Today, Gordonstoun has a rigorous approach to child protection.

“Our policies and procedures are robust and have been developed and approved by leading child protection experts.”

Keir, now living in Cheshire, had denied swimming and showering in the nude while in a state of arousal with three pupils, and encouraging them to do the same.

He refuted allegations of “skinny dipping” with pupils claiming he could have taken boys into the pool alone – but only if he had an “evil mind”.

Prince Charles in his final year at Gordonstoun School

His three victims, now all in their 40s, told how he took them for secret swimming sessions in the dark and chased them naked in the water.

Keir, a black belt in judo, was also convicted of putting his hand on one victim’s crotch and bottom while they “grappled” in a classroom.

He then put his hands down the same pupil’s trousers while he played computer games and performed a sex act on him.

The witnesses said they told the school’s chaplain what had happened but nothing was done.

Giving evidence Keir claimed his diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome made it impossible for him to come up with a reason why the trio would accuse him.

Gordonstoun School
Gordonstoun School (Image: PA)

Keir insisted he was often too busy as a housemaster, teacher, judo and sailing coach and driver of the school fire engine to be alone with pupils. He said: “It would have been exceptionally unusual for me to have a half hour spare. I would certainly never be alone with a pupil.”

Keir added: “If I had had an evil mind I might have managed it, but I didn’t. It would have been possible, but I didn’t.”

Prosecutor Alison Young described Keir’s pattern of alleged behaviour of getting victims alone outside of class as “basically grooming”.

Keir was convicted of lewd, indecent or libidinous practices between November 1988 and March 1989 by removing his swimming trunks in the presence of children.

Prince Philip during his schooldays at Gordonstoun (Image: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh)

He was also found guilty of indecent assault by placing his hands down the trousers of a child and disorderly conduct by removing his swimming trunks in the presence of a child.

In their statement Gordonstoun also praised the whistleblowers and said they now had rigorous measures in place to protect children.

The school said: “We are profoundly saddened by this case.

“The offences, from 1988 and 1991, for which Andrew Keir has been convicted, are distressing for all involved and we admire the courage of those who came forward to seek justice.

https://get.convrse.media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyrecord.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fscottish-news%2Fdisgraced-housemaster-found-guilty-grooming-12157815%23ICID%3Dsharebar_twitter&cre=bottom&cip=31“When we were contacted by the police in 2015 about the allegations we gave them our full co-operation and wrote to our alumni offering our support and urging anyone affected to contact the police.”

Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov (CORR) will sentence Keir next month (April).

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/disgraced-housemaster-found-guilty-grooming-12157815#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Former teacher jailed for lewd acts at Gordonstoun School

1 May 2018Andrew Keir

Andrew Keir

A former teacher at a leading Scottish boarding school has been jailed for a year for lewd acts involving pupils at swimming sessions.

Andrew Keir was convicted of charges involving three boys at Gordonstoun, near Elgin, between 1988 and 1991.

He was found guilty at Elgin Sheriff Court of removing his trunks and exposing himself.

Keir, 67, now of Tarporley, Cheshire, was also convicted of indecent assault and breach of the peace.

In a statement, the school said it was “profoundly saddened” by the case.

“The offences, from 1988 and 1991, for which Andrew Keir has been convicted, are distressing for all involved and we admire the courage of those who came forward to seek justice,” it said.

“During the trial it became clear that the school’s response at the time of the offences was not as robust and rigorous as it would be now, and we are very sorry for this.

“Today, Gordonstoun has a rigorous approach to child protection.”

The school has been attended by members of the Royal Family, including Prince Charles and his father, the Duke of Edinburgh.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-43783607

During evidence, two of the boys said they had taken concerns about Keir’s behaviour to the school chaplain shortly after the swimming pool incident. However, no further action was ever taken.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/moray/elgin/1466071/sheriff-hits-out-at-inadequate-sentence-for-predatory-gordonstoun-teacher-who-groomed-boys/

Michael B Mavor CVO MA Gordonstoun Headmaster 1979-1990 – Assuming responsibility for educating Princes Andrew and Edward

He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by Her Majesty the Queen in 1983.

http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/news/297/240/Michael-B-Mavor-CVO-MA-Headmaster-1979-1990

In 1997 he was awarded the ultimate accolade when he was elected as chairman of the Headmasters’ Conference (HMC).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/michael-mavor-charismatic-headmaster-who-led-rugby-into-the-co-educational-era-1918875.html

He became a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen’s Bodyguard in Scotland, in 1996.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6990095/Michael-Mavor.html

Author reveals shocking new claims of serious sexual assault at Prince Charles’s former boarding school

Miranda Doyle made public the allegations in her memoir about abuse in the 1980s.

3 JUN 2018

Shocking new claims of serious sexual assaults at Prince Charles’s former boarding school have been made to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The allegations about staff at Gordonstoun in the 1980s were made public by author Miranda Doyle in a ­memoir published last year.

In it, she reveals she was attacked by a staff member at the school, in Elgin, when she was just 14.

She also tells how she witnessed other female pupils being ordered to strip naked before being thrown into cold baths by a male teacher.

Miranda, 49, decided to speak out after learning she wasn’t the only pupil targeted by her abuser.

She has waived her right to anonymity and given a statement about the abuse she suffered and other incidents she witnessed.

She said: “Gordonstoun wasn’t a safe place to be. It is time to speak out about what happened.”

Miranda still breaks down in tears almost 40 years on at the painful memories.

She included the harrowing experiences in The Book of Untruths, in which she set out to debunk lies she had been told throughout her life.

It details how she was just 11 when a male teacher told girls in her class not to bring bathing suits for their swimming lesson.

Three years later, after Miranda complained of ­stomach pains, a member of medical staff working at the school carried out an intimate examination he said was needed to check her appendix.

She finally found the strength to speak out after other former pupils shared memories of similar ordeals.

Now she hopes to encourage others who went to the school – once attended by Prince Philip and his sons Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward – to come forward.

Miranda said: “Gordonstoun was supposed to be such a wonderful school – even the Royal Family sent their children there. So many of the pupils feel a lot of shame that they didn’t have a better time. But I never felt safe there, and it didn’t feel safe for the other children.

“I’ve always been seen as a bit of a drama queen, so for a long time I didn’t trust my own memories.

“Speaking out makes me feel terrified but I know now I wasn’t the only pupil this happened to.”

Miranda started at the affiliated Aberlour House junior school in 1979 – when her family moved to Saudi Arabia for her father’s work – and spent two years there before moving to Gordonstoun senior school for the next five years.

Both were founded by Dr Kurt Hahn and shared the same school song, flag and motto. When Miranda was a pupil, they had separate staff, boards of governors and were 20 miles apart.

They merged in 2002 and now share the same campus.

She said: “In my first year at Aberlour House, before the Christmas holidays, one of the teachers announced the girls would have a swimming lesson but because we had already packed there would be no necessity for us to wear our costumes. They might get wet.

“Even at 11, the threat of a wet swimming costume seemed too bogus to be true.

“If wet costumes were an inconvenience, wasn’t it obvious that we do something else? The same teacher would also make appearances at what the girls called ‘birthday baths’.

“When it was someone’s birthday we tortured one another by throwing the birthday girl in a bath of cold water.

“On occasional mornings, he came into the girls’ dormitories before the bell. With his help we would strip the birthday girl down and drag her screaming to a waiting bath.

“Two of us took one arm apiece, his huge hands clamped hard to her spread ankles.”

Edinburgh-born Miranda breaks down in tears at memories of being sexually abused after complaining of a sore stomach.

She said: “I was 14 and I hadn’t thought anything was suspicious then. But some time afterwards I had gone to see one of the house tutors.

“She asked about the examination and how many times it had happened.

“When I said twice she wrote it down and said she had been doing an audit of this type of examination.She told me, ‘When I’ve reached enough of a number maybe I’ll report him.’”

Miranda doesn’t know if the abuse was ever reported.

When the author, who now lives in Cambridge, joined a private Facebook group for former Gordonstoun pupils, she discovered a younger girl had had the same ordeal at the hands of the same man six years later.

She said: “It’s sad to know others have gone through the same thing but to finally have corroboration felt like a relief. There was a forest of girls probably that this happened to.”

Miranda, who has not reported her claims to police and believes her abuser is still alive, said members of the Facebook group spoke of numerous incidents of inappropriate behaviour at the school.

She said: “My sense that those school years had been all wrong was confirmed.”

Ex-pupils gave her guidance and support and that helped her to have the confidence to report her experiences at Aberlour House and Gordonstoun to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is probing the treatment of kids in care – including at residential schools.

She was terrified at first when interviewed. Miranda said: “I howled for the first 10 minutes without even taking my coat off.

“I saw two people from the inquiry team and I felt worried that I was wasting their time and ashamed that I might be disbelieved.

“It was the most amazing experience to be believed. I know I am not the only former pupil from the school to have given a statement to the inquiry.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/author-reveals-shocking-new-claims-12639249


Former Christ’s Hospital teachers appear at court charged with sex offences

9 Aug 2017

Four former teachers from Christ’s Hospital School appeared before Crawley Magistrates’ Court.

The men all worked at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham in West Sussex.

It’s alleged the offences were committed against 15 young people both males and females between 1980 and 1996.

Three men pleaded not guilty to all charges while a fourth man entered no plea.  Gary Dobbie, a former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, is charged with non-recent sex offences.
,
 Gary Dobbie
James Andrew Husband
James Andrew Husband and Ajaz Karim appeared on Wednesday morning and spoke only to plead not guilty on all charges. The fourth man Peter Webb entered no plea.
Dobbie, 66, of Park Street, Hereford, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against three boys, as well as three counts of indecent assault against two women.
At Crawley Magistrates’ Court, he was granted bail on the condition he notifies Sussex Police of the change to his address and has no contact – directly or indirectly – with any former or present members of staff or pupils from Christ’s Hospital School.
James Andrew Husband, a former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, is charged with non-recent sex offences.  He must also have no contact with any children under the age of 18, must not live in a household with a child under the age of 18, or enter and remain in a household where a child under the age of 18 is present. He must not enter any of the school’s premises. Husband, 67, of Wigginton Road, York, is charged with five counts of indecent assault and four counts of rape against a girl. He was granted bail at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on the condition he has no contact – directly or indirectly – with any former or present members of staff or pupils from Christ’s Hospital School.
Ajaz Karim, a former teacher from Christ’s Hospital School, charged with sex offences.    He must not live in the same household as a child under the age of 18, have contact with any children under the age of 16, enter or remain in a household where a child under the age of 14 is present or enter any of the school’s premises. Karim, 62, of Baron’s Court Road, London, is charged with nine counts of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault against six girls. He was granted bail on the condition he has no contact – directly or indirectly – with any former or present members of staff or pupils from Christ’s Hospital School and has no supervision of a child under the age of 16.
Peter Webb, 74, of Authon-Edoen, France, is charged with six counts of indecent assault against three boys.

Peter Webb, a former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, is charged with non-recent sex offences. He was granted bail on the condition he has no contact – directly or indirectly – with any former or present members of staff or pupils from Christ’s Hospital School and has no contact with any children under the age of 18. All four defendants are due to appear before Lewes Crown Court on September 6.

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/former-christ-s-hospital-teachers-appear-at-court-charged-with-sex-offences-1-8094725

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2017-08-09/former-teachers-in-court-charged-with-sex-offences/

^ Only 2 news outlets reporting the news.



SCHOOL SEX CHARGES

Four teachers charged with 36 offences over ‘sex ring’ at £31,500 a year boarding school 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4016051/four-teachers-charged-with-36-offences-over-sex-ring-at-31500-a-year-boarding-school/

Christ's Hospital School

The attacks are alleged to have taken place between 1980 and 1996 are accused of assaults on 15 people, both male and female, across a 16-year period. 

Four former teachers at Sussex school charged with sexual offences

Men who taught at Christ’s Hospital boarding school face total of 36 counts over alleged offences between 1980 and 1996

Four former teachers at a West Sussex boarding school have been charged with a range of sexual offences including rape against 15 alleged male and female victims across a 16-year period.

The accused, all men in their 60s who taught at Christ’s Hospital school near Horsham, face a combined total of 36 counts relating to alleged offences between 1980 and 1996. They were arrested last November.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/13/four-former-teachers-christs-hospital-school-west-sussex-charged-sexual-offences

Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, is charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against three boys and three counts of indecent assault against two girls.
James Andrew Husband, 67, of Wigginton Road, York, is charged with five counts of indecent assault against a girl and four counts of rape.
Ajaz Karim, 62, of Baron’s Court Road, London, is charged with nine counts of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault against six girls.

Peter Webb, 74, of Authon-Edeon, France, is charged with six counts of indecent assault of three boys. Police said the charges relate to a total of 15 complainants. They have been released on bail to appear at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on August 9.

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/former-christ-s-hospital-teachers-charged-with-non-recent-sex-offences-1-8054350

Queen’s Club and Eton head squash coach, Ajaz Karim, is suspended pending outcome of police probe

23 July 2017

Jaz Karim – has been suspended

Queen’s Club

The Duke of Gloucester presents the Stella Artois Championship trophy to USA’s Andy Roddick at Queen’s Club, London, 15 June 2003

Britain’s most exclusive tennis club, Queen’s, whose members include Prince Edward, the Duchess of Gloucester and Pippa Middleton, hosts its annual championships next week in the traditional precursor to Wimbledon.

 CH

Assistant Chaplain 1996 2003  DOBBIE G W

Housemaster            1993 2003  DOBBIE G W

Sen Chapl                    1986 1996  DOBBIE G W

Dec 17, 2006

Gary Dobbie … As far as I am aware he is still the Chaplain at Shrewsbury School.

link

Dec 2016

The Revd Gary William Dobbie, has resigned as Chaplain to Shrewsbury School

I was a housemaster at Christ’s Hospital in Sussex

since January 2003 have been Chaplain of Shrewsbury School.

http://www.kinnessburn.org.uk/html/no_30_march_2005.html

Member of staff from Shrewsbury School being investigated for historical sex offences
Jan 29 2016

The boarding school says the staff member has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation into alleged assaults on a teenage girl.

The allegations involve a school in Sussex and date back up to 26 years ago.

The £11,000-a-term Shrewsbury School, based in Kingsland, has released a statement confirming one of its staff was being questioned by police about the allegations.

It follows the arrest of a man in Shrewsbury by West Mercia Police officers yesterday. Police spokesman Paul Roberts said the arrest was on suspicion of sexual assaults at an address in West Sussex.

He said: “He remains in police custody at this time. West Mercia Police are assisting Sussex Police with their investigation.”

Sussex Police spokesman Tim Mahony said: “Two men were arrested at addresses in Shropshire and North Yorkshire on suspicion of rape and other sexual assaults on a teenage girl in West Sussex during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“They are currently in custody at police stations near where they live, for interview and further inquiries.

“The investigation is being carried out by specialist child safeguarding detectives from Sussex Police.”

A statement from the school said: “Shrewsbury School understands that a police investigation into events at a school in Sussex over 10 years ago involves a member of the current staff at the school.

 

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2016/01/29/member-of-staff-from-shrewsbury-school-being-investigated-for-historical-sex-offences/

St. Matthew’s Day Review

Oct 2006

Former City School Returns to the Capital

400 boys and girls from Christ’s Hospital in their Tudor style uniform marched through the City on Friday, 22 September to celebrate St Matthew’s Day, one of the high days in the School’s calendar.

The Parade began from Carmelite Street (EC1) and moved to the Church of St Andrew, Holborn. The thanksgiving service was attended by David Brewer, the Lord Mayor of the City of London and Vice President of Christ’s Hospital. The School was delighted to also welcome The Revd Gary Dobbie, former Chaplain of Christ’s Hospital and now Chaplain of Shrewsbury School, who took the Sermon.

Following the Service, the pupils, led by the Band, marched from the Church to Mansion House, despite the inclement weather, where they received largesse, a small sum of money, from the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress before being given lunch in the Egyptian Hall.

link


Sidney Society: Speaker, Rev. Gary Dobbie (Moser Library)

Date:  2011-11-17 18:15

History teacher, Andrew Husband

He had 2 sons and a daughter at the school…

He ‘left’ sometime  (1993/4)

link

Gordonstoun and Jaz Karim

Queen’s Club
 Queen’s Club is the home of real tennis and rackets and there are forty tennis courts of all different surfaces. Jaz Karim, the professional, and two assistants were ready to coach us.

 

Jaz Karim presented us with a champagne glass from Queen’s Club and was given a tour cap

http://www.gordonstoun.org.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=209&cntnt01returnid=64

Queen’s Club and Eton head coach suspended in police probe

 

Britain’s most exclusive tennis club, Queen’s whose members include Prince Edward, the Duchess of Gloucester and Pippa Middleton – Ajaz Karim has been suspended pending the outcome of a police probe.

Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and the fourth child of Queen Elizabeth II. He plays tennis regularly, at Queen’s Club in London, off a handicap of 40 (a low B player, in other words) and is the active patron of the Tennis & Rackets Association, which governs the game of tennis in Great Britain

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/10/who-is-the-biggest-name

2004

Queen’s Club

Grant Meyrick, the club’s chairman, has established that members, who include Tim Henman, the British No 1, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, are willing to stump up about £10,000 each to buy it.

The club has long been a favourite with investment bankers. Scott Mead, the former Goldman Sachs partner, was three times club veteran tennis champion.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2889961/Queens-Club-members-to-serve-up-35m-buyout.html

 


When not coaching he works for charity he founded helping children in Uganda  – The Uganda Children’s trust Fund

UGANDA CHARITY TRUST FUND , C/O THE QUEEN’S CLUB 

Trustees MR IAN MARSH, MR AJAZ KARIM, MR MARIUS BRINKHORST, MR ANOUP TREON, DAN MAYNARD, MRS SAGRA MACEIRA, GERARD SOAMES

https://www.uctf.org/our-story/our-team/

The Uganda Children’s Trust Fund was founded in 2001 by Jaz Karim. As a child, Jaz grew up in Mbale, in eastern Uganda. His family were forced to leave for England under the Asian expulsion ordered by Idi Amin  Jaz first re-visited Uganda in the late 2000s

https://www.uctf.org/who-we-are/

Eton Action

Eton Action is an independent charity conceived and founded by Etonians to promote charitable activity and social responsibility among boys. Its activities consist primarily in raising money for charities other than Eton College itself. It is still run primarily by boys: an executive committee of boys governs the charity under the guidance of the chairman, secretary and treasurer, who are Masters. Trustees are drawn from current senior staff.

The income from all these events is pooled and divided between charitable foundations and projects chosen by the committee and voted on by every boy in the school. In addition, external charities set up stalls which enable them to raise money for their own good causes.

In 2016, a variety of activities ranging from a fives marathon to the sponsored shaving of a House Master’s beard raised a total of £40,300 which was divided between the Uganda Children’s Trust Fund, The Passage, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Space for Giants and Great Ormond Street.

http://www.etoncollege.com/EtonAction.aspx


Eton

14 July 2017

Eton’s head of squash charged with boarding school sex abuse

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/men-charged-with-sex-offences-at-leading-independent-school-9tw5857s2

Is there a paedophile ring at Eton:

 

Andreas Baader‏ @stop1984

 

Eton schoolboy who shared ‘appalling’ child abuse images from dorm computer is spared prison

Judge says prison would ‘undo’ counselling ‘privileged’ Andrew Picard has undergone after he was caught distributing hundreds of images on Skype

Picard’s chatroom account was traced to the prestigious school, near Windsor, Berkshire, where he was arrested for sharing explicit material between January and February 2015.

Andrew Picard

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/12173680/Eton-schoolboy-who-shared-appalling-child-abuse-images-from-dorm-computer-is-spared-prison.html

 

May 09th, 2016

Andrew Picard, a former USA Swimmer, has been added to the list of Individuals Suspended or Ineligible – Permanently, the organization announced on Monday.Picard, who registered with USA Swimming with both the names Andrew Laurence and Andrew Boeckman (as recently as December on the latter name) and whose prior legal name was Andrew Laurence Boeckman, last swam at a meet in December of 2015.Picard made global headlines earlier this year when he received only a suspended prison sentence despite being caught by an undercover police officer sharing pictures of young children in an online chat room. Picard, 17 at the time but now 18, was found with 1,185 indecent images and videos on his computer and external hard drives. The material was described as “disturbing” and by the case’s judge as “so appalling, frankly I can’t bring myself to talk about it.” According to police, the videos included abuse of babies and toddlers.Picard pled guilty to one count of possessing indecent pictures of children, one count of making indecent pictures of children, and 8 counts of distributing indecent photos of recordings of a child. He was sentenced to 10-months in prison, suspended for 18 months. What that means is that if Picard doesn’t break the law and fulfills the conditions of his probation over the next 18 months, the sentence will be dismissed.https://swimswam.com/swimmer-andrew-picard-banned-life-usa-swimming/

Andreas Baader‏ @stop1984

Eton student owned toddler-rape videos allowed to use false name to protect wealthy family


Lashings All Stars XI v UCTF Invitation XI Wormsley Estate, Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3YE

 All funds raised will support the UCTF. The Uganda Children’s Trust Fund

 

Rickmansworth Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in England.

the club relocated to Rickmansworth Park, opposite the Met Station, which is now the grounds of the Royal Masonic School for Girls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickmansworth_Cricket_Club



https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20170614/282175061100815

Karim’s arrangement at Queen’s allows him to fulfil the same head squash coach role at Eton College, where he has been in the post since 2008, and at the Hurlingham Club in South-West London, and even — according to his personal website — at investment bank Credit Suisse, which has its own squash courts.

His website adds that he ‘represented England at junior level in hockey’, ‘has played and coached cricket at a high level’ and has been ‘coaching, training, studying at the pinnacle of squash for over 30 years’.

A lot of the support and fundraising for the Uganda Children’s Fund has come through Jaz’s Queen’s Club connections, one way and another — and probably some of his Etonian connections as well.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4601864/Queen-s-Club-coach-suspended-pending-police-probe.html

The Canary Wharf Health Club

The club, located next to the Credit Suisse offices in Cabot Square was previously only available for use by employees of the financial services company.

https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/gyms/canary-wharf/services/squash-courts

The health club boasts the only squash courts in Canary Wharf.

Use of the three glass-backed courts is included in membership and two can be pre-booked while one is kept free for on-the-day players.

Eton squash coach Jaz Karim runs an inter-office league and also offers one-to-one coaching.

http://www.wharf.co.uk/lifestyle/fitness/first-look-canary-wharf-health-11440625

10 May 2005

Queen’s Club  has around 4,500 members. They include the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, actors Joseph Fiennes and Damian Lewis, Hollywood star Charlton Heston and singer Elaine Paige.

The club also has a large number of City professionals and international business people, including Richard Branson and George Soros.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mystery-as-queens-faces-crisis-talks-7176893.html

Image result for HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and savile

 

HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester -the mother of the present Duke of Gloucester

Dr. Margery Blackie

Princess Alice, the late Duchess of Gloucester, was the patron of the Blackie Foundation Trust established in honor of Dr. Margery Blackie, the former royal homeopathic physician who served from 1969 until 1980.

At present, Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvy, is patron to the Blackie Foundation Trust, and Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, serves as one of the vice-presidents of this organization.

http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-royal-medicine-monarchs-longtime.html

Dr. Margery Blackie, the first woman to be named President of the Faculty of the British Homoeopathic Society and Physician to Her Majesty the Queen.

 

James Compton Burnett who was the homeopathic physician of Lewis Carroll was also a great uncle of Marjorie Grace Blackie,

 

 Image result for anna raccoon blogger

Margerie Blackie (left) is blogger anna raccoon’s aunt (raccoon blogged about Savile and  Duncroft school)

Anna Raccoon Retweeted Anna Raccoon:

Another aunt was Dr Margery Blackie. A long line of indomitable women who would have run a mile from a ‘safe space’!


Current Blackie Foundation Trust Patron – HRH Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy – Jimmy Savile’s friend

It was founded by Blackie in 1971, when she was homeopathic physician to the Queen.[13]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Blackie_Foundation_Trust

Image result for duke of gloucester and Dr Margery Blackie

Dr. Margery Blackie and Sir John Weir

Image result for duke of gloucester british homeopath society

British Homeopathic Association patron – Duke of Gloucester

http://royalcentral.co.uk/other/who-is-the-duke-of-gloucester-75873


JS ENTERPRISES LIMITED

Activities of sport clubs

Mr Ajaz Karim

Ms Ulla Eevi Tuuliki Karim

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/906460163/MR-AJAZ-KARIM/companies

P J‏ @Pamper48

Hurlingham Club famously hosts ‘ball’ after Wimbledon. Cliff has played pro-celebrity tennis there. Hurlingham Park known for polo (Princes)

Elm Guest house 27 Rocks Lane

Vicount Ian Kerr CGC‏@IanKerr

Wimbledon to Rocks Lane………just a 15 minute drive.

 

Hurlingham Park

a hop, skip and jump away from Harvey Proctor’s Fulham home.

5 March 1987

MP Harvey Proctor, pictured while going for a run through Bishop’s Park, near Fulham

13th March 1987

MP Harvey Proctor enters his Fulham High Street home.


Image result for jill dando paedo ring

1999 Jill Dando murdered on the doorstep of her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/is-this-mysterious-bullet-a-clue-at-last-to-jill-dandos-killer-1109454.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/is-this-mysterious-bullet-a-clue-at-last-to-jill-dandos-killer-1109454.html

DETECTIVES investigating the shooting of Jill Dando 11 weeks ago will not even interview the Ealing Vicarage rapist, Martin McCall.

McCall took a job as a security guard with a company in Fulham, Southwest London, where the murdered Crimewatch presenter lived and died.

Last January he switched to a company which employs security guards at the BBC.

He worked at Television Centre with access to the Crimewatch office and, in theory, Jill Dando’s home address. Within days of the killing he left his job.

McCall was jailed in 1986 for a vicious assault on vicar’s daughter Jill Saward.

He later bludgeoned another member of his gang to death to stop him talking. …

https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109766448.html

Convicted paedophile, Patrick Rock lived in Fulham

David Cameron’s ex-aide Patrick Rock faces child pornography trial

Rock was part of David Cameron’s “inner circle”

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/ex-downing-street-aide-patrick-rock-in-court-on-child-porn-charge-9581938.html

Fulham’s Michael Jackson Statue to Be Removed After Former Owner Mohamed Al Fayed Decided He Wants It

Image result for michael jackson and f Mohamed al Fayed,
In addition to being friends with convicted paedophile, rev Guy Bennett, Mohammed Al Fayed was also a personal friend of paedophile Michael Jackson

Fulham

The Oratory School is located there.

HIV priest accused of abusing schoolboy

Search begins for anonymous Oratory letter writer as Catholic church admits it knew late chaplain had virus before he was ordained
Father Michael Napier, the provost of the order at the time Father Martin joined in 1988 and at the time of his ordination in 1994, is now also dead

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/06/religion.childprotection

Father Michael Napier is related (cousin) to convicted paedophile Charles Napier

Paedophile Charles Napier’s uncle: Charles Scott Napier

Michael Napier’s father, Major-General Charles Napier, served in the Royal Engineers, and was a backroom boy in charge of movement control, especially for the D-Day operations.

The son of Major-General Charles Scott Napier, a relation of the Lords Napier and Ettrick, Michael Scott Napier was born in India in February 1929.

http://www.thekingscandlesticks.com/webs/pedigrees/21765.html

Father Michael NapierRev Michael Napier’s relation -(The 14th Lord Napier and Ettrick worked for Princess Margaret – served Princess Margaret as her Private Secretary for 25 years, and then as her Treasurer for four years until her death in 2002.

Princess Margaret, was patron of Lighthouse charity which took care of paedophile priest Fr Martin appointed by Father Michael Napier.

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-171039353/a-gay-priest-who-died-of-aids-claims-of-child-abuse

Paedophile Kit Cunningham wrote a obituary of Michael Napier

Two football clubs, Fulham F.C. and Chelsea, play in Fulham.[8][9] There are two exclusive sporting clubs, The Hurlingham Club known for Polo and the Queen’s tennis club known for its annual pre-Wimbledon Tennis tournament.[10][11]

Porn Baron Lord Feversham – 

Jasper, 41, who has made a fortune from pornography, is to be found in a somewhat more modest accommodation in Fulham, South-West London, where he runs Tongue In Cheek and Relish XXX, companies specialising in porn films.

Jasper, who was at gordonstoun with Prince Edward, had been estranged from his father ever since he was jailed for attempted robbery while high on cocaine In recent times, he liked to boast that he was one of the largest producers of hardcore porn in the country, making films with titles like To The manor Porn, and with a contract to supply NHS hospital fertility clinics with blue movies.

Jasper Duncombe, eldest son of Etonian Lord Feversham,

www.questia.com/read/1G1-104510217/lord-porn-s-blue-movies-for-the-nhs

Ms (Natalie) Rowe, Mr Sinclair and Lord Feversham are just three members of a large and colourful cast of bohemian characters, interlinked by loose association and dubious habits, who caroused in the smarter reaches of West London almost two decades ago.

link


Hurlingham Club

HRH Crafty Muvva‏ @craftymuvva

Also hosts Conservatives balls AND was within view of the last place Vishal Mehrotra was sighted.

Image result for Hurlingham Club in South-West London

The Hurlingham Club

Is an exclusive sports and social club located in Fulham, London, England. It has a Georgian clubhouse set in 42 acres (17 ha) of grounds. It is a member of The Association of London Clubs.

Recognised throughout the world as one of Britain’s greatest private members’ clubs. The waiting list is 12 years.

Lord Fowler is a member of Hurlingham Club

Image result for fowler and savile

Lord Fowler and paedophile Jimmy Savile

At the time, the Conservatives had made significant cuts to benefits for disabled people. Norman Fowler, the Health Secretary, wrote to the Prime Minister to say that a £500,000 donation to the Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries unit would help show that the government’s support for disabled people “had not ended”.

 

British politician who was a member of Margaret Thatcher’s ministry, Tory Cabinet minister Lord Fowler, Lord Temple-Morris, Adam Raphael, the Carry On actress Liz Fraser, novelist and peer Jeffrey Archer, the actor Trevor Eve and his wife Sharon Maughan are all members of the Hurlingham Club. Past members include Walter Buckmaster and Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Cushion, Lord Hunt, BBC broadcaster Ed Stourton and even Kate Middleton’s hairdresser Richard Ward –

Past members include Walter Buckmaster and Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Cushion. In 2011, Charles Nall-Cain, 3rd Baron Brocket was refused membership owing to his stint in prison.[16]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029397/Lord-Brocket-appalled-blackballed-Hurlingham-Club.html

The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), an early patron, was a keen shot and his presence ensured the club’s status and notability from the beginning. The current patron is HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hurlingham_Club

Oh I say, what a peach of a fund-raising auction the Tories held in Fulham the other night.

The old boy’s spirit certainly hovered over the Hurlingham Club when the Conservative’s pre-election begging bowl did the rounds at a £12,000-per-table donors’ dinner. 

Traditionally strong on the fund-raising side, the party had invited the usual rabble of the mega-rich – folk who are either in or on the edge of kitchen supper society – to mingle and break bread with its top seeds. One of those who joined David Cameron, George Osborne, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt paid £40,000 for a bottle of champagne signed by Lady Thatcher, while another lashed out double that for a day’s shooting on the Oxfordshire estate of the Syrian-born billionaire Wafic Said.

This touching we’re-all-in-it-together austerity-fest reached its climax with the sale of what was billed as “the ultimate tennis match”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10946224/Tennis-and-politics-You-cannot-be-serious.html

 Hurlingham Club clientele

Tom Eulenberg,  club Cirque le Soir, ‘ringmaster’, pictured at the Hurlingham Club, for the polo, surrounded by young women

 

  • Owner of Cirque le Soir, Ryan Bishti, 35, arrested on suspicion of bribery
  • Questioned over claims police had inappropriate relationship with clubs

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-arrested-over-soho-scandal-gn8qctddw

Soho policemen arrested by colleagues probing a ‘West End bribery ring centred on a club where A-List stars are entertained by dwarves’

Celebrity haunt: Cara Delevingne and Rihanna are among the stars that frequent nightclub Cirque le Soir. Pictured, the pair with the ringmaster of the circus themed club, Tom Eulenberg
Tom Eulenberg at his decadent Cirque le Soir venue known for boasting dwarves as entertainment

Pictured, star Miley Cyrus kisses a member of staff dressed as a baby at Cirque le Soir

A-list: Miley Cyrus, pictured kissing a member of staff dressed as a baby at the Cirque le Soir club
More here on Eulenberg and co

Why is latest Met Police Corruption Scandal dragging on?

As of Feb 2016 there had been a total of 18 arrests [1] including

  • Ryan Bishti founder of “celeb” nightclub Cirque Le Soir on suspicion of bribery
  • Tom Eulenberg described as Cirque Le Soir clubs ringmaster
  • 2 Police constables
  • Members of TSS Security and Profile Protection

No one had been charged as of Feb 2016, no announcements are known to have been made that anyone has been charged to date.

The Department of Professional Standards had said it planned  to send a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in six months’ time from Feb 2016 [1] It is not known whether they have.

Suspicion is that the guilty are high up in the Westminster Police Licensing Unit, the process will be delayed, evidence lost, witnesses unavailable

https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/why-is-latest-met-police-corruption-and-sex-scandal-dragging-on/

Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester, arrival at The Hurlingham Club.

Jeffrey Archer, jailbird who invested in Harvey Proctor’s shirt shop, a Hurlingham member.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-hurlingham-club-has-kicked-out-vicky-pryce-but-not-because-of-what-she-did-8937634.html


Hurlingham Club  getting a £22 million makeover

14 July 2017

Plans to redevelop the club’s Grade II-listed West Wing, adding a second swimming pool, cafe, sports bar and fitness studios over three floors.

Hurlingham’s chairman, Julian Holloway, held a referendum this week to vote on whether to submit the architects’ plans to Hammersmith & Fulham Council for planning approval and listed building consent.


Mervyn Conn was a member of the Hurlingham Club

Music promoter Mervyn Conn used his fame to rape and abuse young girls


Friends celebrated Cliff Richards‘ 30 years in business at the Hurlingham Club


 

 


Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arriving at the Club House, Hurlingham Club, for the Commonwealth and Empire Coronation Ball given by the Royal Empire Society, Victoria League and Overseas League. 1953

JAMES Matthews and Pippa Middleton enjoy an evening together at the ParaSnowBall at the Hurlingham Club.

The ParaSnowBall is held annually by Disabled Snowsports UK, of which Pippa is a patron.

During the evening, the pair enjoyed a night of winter sports presentations and rubbed shoulders with a series of British Paralympic champions.

link

Kate has been attending Pilates classes at the Hurlingham Sports and Social Club

Image result for Princess charles at the Hurlingham Club

Prince Charles with meets Brigadier John Wright, Chairman of the Hurlingham Polo Association

The Prince’s Trust Spring Ball Tickets at the Hurlingham Club

http://www.viagogo.co.uk/London/The-Hurlingham-Club-Tickets/_V-9534/The-Princes-Trust-Spring-Ball-Tickets

Nov 15, 2016 – Prince Harry today visited a sexual health charity as he continues his efforts … During the visit to Fulham’s Hurlingham Club

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/prince-harry-visits-london-sexual-health-charity-amid-hiv-awareness-campaign-a3396371.html

Image result for Princess Margaret arriving at the Hurlingham Club

Princess Margaret arriving at the Hurlingham Club


Dame Alun Roberts‏ @ciabaudo

Quelle surprise: Jaz Karim was squash coach at Champneys, run by Savile’s mate!  Champneys run by Stephen Purdew – friend to Savile and Keith Vaz

Jaz Karim, professional squash coach at Champneys of London and Canary Wharf Health Club;

 

1995

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tried-tested-power-players-in-the-frame-1581647.html

Jaz Karim founded JazSports in 1990 and focussed initially on coaching but later developed the business from coaching and supplying sports equipment to athletes to today when JazSports has become the ultimate ‘hub’ for athletes to go to in order to holistically develop their physical and mental skills in their game.

Jaz’s sporting credentials are broad. He has represented England at junior level in hockey and has played and coached cricket at a high level. He is a uniquely inspirational coach in his chosen sport, squash. In the words of former World No. 1 Squash Player Amr Shabana  “Jaz is a living legend”.

At JazSports Jaz brings together a team of highly qualified coaches and top-notch supporting professionals from specialist personal trainers to nutritionists and sports psychologists. He works closely with managers, agents, sponsors and sports clubs providing him with a varied and broad network helping his athletes to reach their highest potential in their sporting career.

Jaz and his team works with National organisations to promote squash at a strategic national level. Working closely with Gibraltar and with experience in Uganda, Finland and USA means he has a wealth of experience to draw upon.

At the club level the impact of the fitness industry has been meteoric and as clubs strive to add value to their membership so Jaz helps clubs both strategically and detailed project planning to promote the sport ensuring success for the largest to the smallest of organisations.

Consultancy Engagements
Jaz has worked in a multitude of capacities when consulting on

JazSports has provided on site assistance in the following programs;

  1. National Squash Strategy – Gibraltar

  2. Club Turnaround – London based clubs

  3. Tournament Hosting – Tournament of Champions

  4. Coaching and Clinics – Jaz Camps

  5. Squash Development – New court construction in US

  6. Role of squash within a Health/Rackets Club

http://jazsports.co.uk/JazSports/Home.html

Ajaz Karim

Head Coach at Queens Club London

United Kingdom
Professional Training & Coaching
Current
  1. Queens Club London,
  2. Eton College,
  3. The Hurlingham Club
Previous
  1. The Christ Hospital
Education
  1. St Pauls and StMary’s College

Experience

  • Head Coach

    Queens Club London
    January 2013 – Present (4 years 7 months)
  • Head Coach

    Eton College
    September 2008 – Present (8 years 11 months)

    Head Coach

    The Hurlingham Club

    September 2003 – Present (13 years 11 months)

    Head Coach

    Credit Suisse

    September 1995 – Present (21 years 11 months)
  • Sports Consultant

    jaz Sports
    January 1985 – Present (32 years 7 months)
  • Director

    Jaz Sports
    January 1985 – Present (32 years 7 months)
  • Head Professional Squash

    Queens Club
    January 1985 – Present (32 years 7 months)
  • Head Coach

    The Christ Hospital
    September 1985 – August 1995 (10 years)

Skills

  • Coaching
  • Event Management
  • Sports
  • Fitness
  • Personal Training
  • Sports Marketing
  • Public Speaking

Education

  • St Pauls and St Mary’s College

    B.ED, Sports /Psychology

    1975 – 1978

  • Mbale senior Secondary School Uganda

     1966 – 1972

Recommendations

A preview of what LinkedIn members have to say about ajaz:

  • Jaz is passsionate about squash. He understands the game well and his coaching style reflects that. Besides squash, Jaz is a tireless campaigner of promoting sports via charitable causes. He has the natural ability to make one feel at ease via his wit and the steely determination which he inconsciously imparts in others.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ajaz-karim-27198a19


 

Christ's Hospital School in Horsham

Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham


Bail extended again for former Christ’s Hospital employees

 

Christ’s Hospital School.

May 3 2017

Four men arrested during 2016 over allegations of non-recent sexual offences against pupils from Christ’s Hospital School, have had their police bail extended from May 3 to July 12 while police reports continue to be considered by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Sussex Police said today (May 3).
The four and their legal representatives have been informed and did not need to attend police stations on May 3, police said. Sussex police said that a 65-year old from Shropshire was arrested on January 29, 2016, on suspicion of indecent assault on a girl, indecent assault on a boy and another indecent assault on a boy.
On December 12, 2016, he was re-arrested in Shropshire by Sussex officers and was interviewed on suspicion of further offences against six people – five men, and a woman – before being rebailed. A 66-year old man from North Yorkshire was arrested on January 29, 2016, on suspicion of the rape of a girl and indecent assault on a girl.
A 62-year old West London man was arrested on June 12, 2016, on suspicion of indecent assaults on four girls.
A 74-year old man living in the Charente-Maritime District of France, who is a UK citizen, was arrested in the UK on December 20, 2016, on suspicion of indecent assaults on three boys.

All the men were teachers at the school, police said. The investigation is being carried out by detectives from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit.

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/bail-extended-again-for-former-christ-s-hospital-employees-1-7944403


Feb 10 2017

Bail extended for former Christ’s Hospital employees Christ’s Hospital school.

Four men, arrested during 2016 over non-recent allegations of sexual offences while teachers at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham, have had their police bail extended from February 10 to March 15 while police reports are being considered by the CPS, Sussex Police said today (February 10).
The four and their legal representatives were informed and did not need to attend police stations on February 10, police said.
Sussex police said that a 65-year old from Shropshire was arrested on January 29 2016 on suspicion of indecent assault on a girl, indecent assault on a boy and another indecent assault on a boy. On December 12 2016 he was re-arrested in Shropshire by Sussex officers and was interviewed on suspicion of further offences against six people – five men, and a woman – before being rebailed. A 66-year old man from North Yorkshire was arrested on January 29 2016 on suspicion of the rape of a girl and indecent assault on a girl. A 62-year old West London man was arrested on June 12 2016, on suspicion of indecent assaults on four girls. A 74-year old man living in the Charente-Maritime District of France, who is a UK citizen, was arrested in the UK on December 20 2016, on suspicion of indecent assaults on three boys.

All the men were teachers at the school, police said. The investigation is being carried out by detectives from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit.

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/crime/bail-extended-for-former-christ-s-hospital-employees-1-7816278

Update Jan 11 2017

More sordid news from Christ’s Hospital School:

Pupil at £30,000-per-year public school admits revenge porn blackmail bid against two teenage girls after ‘sexting’ them

  • Alistair Wilson blackmailed the two girls with images obtained through ‘sexting’ 
  • He attended the £30,000-a-year Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, Sussex

Lincoln Crown Court heard Wilson, who was 18 at the time of the offences, had previously exchanged nude photos with the girl while ‘sexting’.

He made the threat of distributing the nude photos online –

The school has maintained close links with royalty and the City of London and the Queen has been school patron since 1953.

link

 

Update Jan 6 2017

Anthony Brailsford due back in court today for sentencing – no news so far

brailsford

Anthony Brailsford has avoided a jail sentence despite admitting indecent assaults on a boy in the 1990s

Anthony Brailsford – Headmaster of Queen’s Windsor Castle school admits he is a paedophile as court hears he sexually abused boys in his Latin classes and watched them shower naked

Brailsford, who appeared in the dock dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, was released on conditional bail to return to the court to be sentenced on January 6.

link

Update: Dec 15 2016 – Bail extended and still no names ….

Three men arrested on suspicion of non-recent sexual offences while teachers at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham have had their police bail extended to February 10, 2017 while police enquiries continue and police reports are considered by the CPS, Sussex Police said.

The three men had previously been bailed until today (December 15).

A Sussex Police spokesman said that a 65-year old man from Shropshire was arrested on January 29 on suspicion of indecent assault on a girl, indecent assault on a boy, and another indecent assault on a boy.

The spokesman added: “On December 12 the 65-year old from Shropshire was re-arrested in Shropshire by Sussex officers and was interviewed on suspicion of further offences against six people – five men and a woman – before being rebailed to February 10.

A 66-year old man from North Yorkshire was arrested on January 29, 2016 on suspicion of the rape of a girl in West Sussex, and indecent assault on a girl, the spokesman added.

A 62-year old West London man was arrested on June 12, 2016, on suspicion of indecent assaults on four girls in West Sussex, the spokesman said.

The investigation is being carried out by detectives from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit.

link

Dec 6 2016

Headmaster of Princess Eugenie’s former  prep school, St George’s, admits sexually assaulting boys in his Latin classes and watching others showering naked


Yet another paedophile working for a school affiliated with the royal family ….how many does that make now?

Eugenie ended up going to St George’s school because her parents’ first choice was a school, Aiglon, with a paedophile scandal…involving the head, Richard McDonald,who’s a friend of Prince Andrew.

That friend and head, Richard McDonald,

also taught as Christ Hospital School…and attended Gordonstoun at the same time as Prince Andrew

Update: Jan 13 2017

Paedophile headmaster, Anthony Brailsford, who touched boys during Latin classes and watched them shower naked at the prestigious Queen’s school at Windsor Castle is SPARED JAIL

  • Former headteacher was Latin tutor when the abuse took place, court told
  • He would get boys to come to front of class and touch their buttocks
  • Indecent images found on his computer when police raided his home
  • Judge spares him jail, saying it is ‘not in the public interest’ to lock him up

‘Not in the public interest to lock him up’ How many times are we hearing this now?

 

Not in the Establishment’s interest!


Anthony Brailsford, the former acting head of the St George’s school – He admitted three counts of indecent assault on a boy in the 1990s and police found a catalogue of indecent images on his computer.

But the 70-year-old avoided a jail term and was instead given a six-month suspended sentence at court today.

St George’s School is known to be popular with royals, and former pupils include Princess Eugenie. Boarding fees are currently £6,953 a term.

The court heard the victim, who cannot be identified, was abused when he was aged just 12 and 13 years.

In an impact statement read to court, the victim said he would never forgive his former teacher for what he suffered.

Brailsford was previously acting head of St George's school in the shadow of Windsor Castle

In his sentencing remarks, Recorder Quinlan revealed that ‘identical’ further matters were also ‘brought to the attention of the school’ for which he received a final written warning.

But the judge said: ‘I do not consider it in the public interest for you to loss your liberty immediately.’

Reading Crown Court heard the then headmaster of St George’s School, the Reverend Roger Marsh, did not respond to the first letter from the victim’s parents which raised concerns over Brailsford’s behaviour.

Mr Recorder Christopher Quinlan QC was told it was only after they threatened reporting the matter to the police in a second letter that Rev Marsh responded to the victim’s mother.

Ex-schoolmaster Brailsford was not sacked after he admitted to touching boys to the headmaster as he denied the assaults were sexual in 1998.

Brailsford, who worked at the school from 1973 to 2012, was spared jail today and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from being in unsupervised contact with boys aged 16 or less for seven years.

He did not have to pay any of the £1,800 contribution to prosecution costs asked due to his finances.

At the time the offences were claimed to have been committed, Brailsford was a schoolmaster at St George’s School, having been appointed as acting headmaster in 1993.

Pupils who attend the school, which is a unisex day and boarding school for students aged three years to 13 years, include the choristers of St George’s chapel – a place of royal worship situated behind the school in the grounds of the Queen’s Windsor Castle.

………………………………………………………………….

Aiglon 2000

Scandal, though, was already in the air. Two months earlier, a chemistry teacher left after his homosexual fantasies were published on the internet.

Then came disclosures that three girls had been drugged and sexually assaulted in a dormitory

. .. it emerged that the headmaster, Richard McDonald, was not on a sabbatical but in prison on charges of sex offences against children.

Media stories of debauchery and drinking among the pupils followed swiftly.

link

link

After a final inspection last week, they chose the latter – while trying to spare some of Aiglon’s blushes by saying that the Swiss option had been “postponed”.

link

Andreas Baader‏ @stop1984

Career maker: Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend, aspiring actress Cressida Bonas, poses with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein  at a screening of the latter’s new film Big Eyes in London

Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas slopes off to hobnob with ANOTHER Epstein pal

When Prince Harry’s former girlfriend Cressida Bonas agreed to go skiing with her chum Princess Eugenie, she had no idea she would be caught up in the storm engulfing the Duke of York.

After Prince Andrew joined his daughter and her model friend at their £22,000-per-week chalet in the Alps, it was besieged by the world’s media amid a growing furore over claims Andrew had sex with an under-age girl ‘procured’ for him by his close friend, convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

So it was an unfortunate coincidence that Cressie’s first public engagement on returning to London on Sunday was a bash thrown by another of Epstein’s friends, film producer Harvey Weinstein.

Sloping off: Cressida has recently returned to London from spending time in Verbier in the Swiss Alps with her old friend Princess Eugenie and her family

Dressed in a midriff-baring outfit with her glossy mane worn loose, the 25-year-old posed next to Weinstein, 62, at a screening of his latest offering, Big Eyes.

(Lurking behind was Charles Dance, who in 2004 famously seduced vicar’s daughter Sophia Myles, 33 years his junior, and then cruelly dumped her.)

Despite the movie mogul’s long-standing association with Epstein — the two even made a failed bid for New York magazine in 2003 — the screening was an occasion not to be missed for aspiring thespian Cressida.

Weinstein, who is married to 38-year-old fashion designer Georgina Chapman, a friend of the Duchess of York, is known for mentoring young actresses.

(L to R) Harvey Weinstein, Princess Eugenie of York and Georgina Chapman at attends a VIP screening of ‘Lion’ hosted by Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman at Soho House on December 19, 2016 in London, England

He is credited with propelling Gwyneth Paltrow (pictured below) to A-list status, having collaborated with her on eight films, including Shakespeare In Love, for which she won an Oscar in 1999.

So it is understandable that Cressida, who scored a small part in Harvey’s forthcoming movie Tulip Fever, is keen to nurture her relationship with the Hollywood tycoon.

Aptly she plays a ‘society lady’ in the film, which is based on Deborah Moggach’s novel.

Since splitting with Harry, ambitious Cressida has been taking her acting career seriously.

Last month, she attended a private vocal training school on Orkney to improve her articulation and projection skills.

Meanwhile, her first play, There’s A Monster In The Lake, is being revived later this month at Waterloo Vaults.

Perhaps Cressie, who has given few signs she wants to rekindle her romance with Harry, has set her sights on an even more desirable prize than a prince: an Oscar. 


2016

Prince William birthday party Stock Photo

The school was established to provide six choristers for the Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, which sings in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, which is the official country residence of the British Royal Family. St George’s is one of the oldest schools in the country, and has provided an unbroken line of boy choristers to sing daily services in St George’s Chapel since 1352.

The school’s choristers have sung at events such as the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, now the Countess of Wessex; the funeral of John Hunt, Baron Hunt; and also the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

In the shadow of Windsor Castle: The teacher, who had admitted the indecent images charges last April, was ordered not to enter St George¿s School (pictured) or its grounds

In the shadow of Windsor Castle: Hidden among the pine trees and suburban hedges of Ascot, St George’s occupies a 30-acre estate near the Queen’s favourite racecourse

At the time the offences were claimed to have been committed, Brailsford was a schoolmaster at St George’s, having been appointed as acting headmaster in 1993.

Pupils who attend the school, which is a unisex day and boarding school for those aged three years to 13 years, include the choristers of St George’s chapel – a place of royal worship situated behind the school in the grounds of Windsor Castle. 

Headmaster of Princess Eugenie’s former £7,000 a term prep school admits sexually assaulting boys in his Latin classes and watching others showering naked

Latin teacher: Brailsford was acting headmaster of the £7,000-a-term St George's School, Windsor Castle (pictured) in Berkshire and was later a schoolmaster there

Anthony Brailsford was acting headmaster of the £7,000-a-term school

Was also a Latin teacher at St George’s School, Windsor Castle in Berkshire

He had denied three counts of indecent assault on the same boy at the school 

Changed plea after judge said jury should be told about his indecent images 

He had admitted two counts of making indecent images of children – which were mostly of naked, pre-pubescent boysat a court hearing in 2014.

The offences are said to have happened at the school between 1997 and 1998.

Brailsford was warned by the schoolmaster Reverend Roger Marsh over him touching boys sexually at the school.

“Another set of parents told Reverend Marsh of rumours about the defendant’s behaviour,” said the judge.

Jurors would be told about the headmaster’s note of a meeting he held with white-haired Brailsford following a verbal warning over his behaviour.

The note, which was kept in the school’s records and supported by a later statement from Rev Marsh, read: “I saw the senior master in connection with allegations made about him, touching boys on the back and bottom.

“Mr Brailsford said that he did sometimes run his hand down backs of boys in that way.”

The court heard that Rev. Marsh warned Brailsford verbally about the assaults after the boy, who had been preparing for entrance exams to join prestigious Eton College, had left the school.

Brailsford had “assured” the Reverend that the attacks would stop at the meeting in April 1998.

The survivor, who was aged 12 or 13 years old and was boarding at the school at the time, told police in 2014 that he was attacked between five and seven times.

The headmaster’s note continued: “He said it still happened but less often, despite the verbal warning I gave him on April 7 1998.”

The court heard that the Rev. Marsh, who had also spoken to Brailsford over the rumours two months before the formal warning, later sent a further written warning to the teacher.

The judge said social services then launched an investigation and police were informed.

…Brailsford’s admissions of having indecent images after his defending lawyer, Jon Mitchell, told the court they were “naturist” and not of a sexual nature…there were also hundreds of images of which the majority were of “pre-pubescent boys’ naked backsides”.

link

Rev Roger Marsh – The Revd Roger Marsh was, until recently, a valued Chaplain of Lancing College, a role which he carried out for ten years. He will be acting Head Master for the remainder of the current academic year. He and his wife Eileen will continue to provide the warm atmosphere of a highly professional, yet family run institution. Both have extensive experience of prep school life, as Roger Marsh’s previous headships include very successful periods at Ardingly College Prep and St George’s Windsor Castle. Roger and Eileen Marsh are both greatly looking forward to the two terms they will spend at Lancing Prep at Worthing.

Ardingly College/Chichester Diocese/ School Paedophile Rings/PIE

Peter Ball was Chaplain at Ardingly 1990-94

1990-94 Peter Ball Chaplain at Ardingly (3:51)

Peter Ball educated at Lancing College and was governor there

ball-lancing

link

Ian Beer, former head of Lancing College was one of those who wrote a letter of support for paedophile Bishop Peter Ball

 

Image result for bishop ball and prince charles

22 June 2017

Church of England colluded with bishop who abused boys, says Welby

Report about bishop Peter Ball, finding collusion over 20 years, is ‘harrowing reading’

Collusion: Secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy

Senior figures in the Church of England colluded for a period of 20 years with a disgraced former bishop who sexually abused boys and men, a damning independent report has found.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the report on the church’s handling of former bishop Peter Ball made “harrowing reading”.

“The church colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward. This is inexcusable and shocking behaviour,” he said.

“To the survivors who were brave enough to share their story and bring Peter Ball to justice, I once again offer an unreserved apology. There are no excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systemic abuse of trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.”

Two former archbishops of Canterbury, George Carey and Rowan Williams, apologised to the victims of Peter Ball after being criticised for their failures in relation to him.

Ball, the former bishop of both Gloucester and Lewes, was jailed in October 2015 for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men aged 17-25 who had sought spiritual guidance from him between 1977 and 1992. He was released from prison in February after serving 16 months.

His trial heard that after Ball was first accused in 1993, a string of senior establishment figures – including Carey, an unidentified member of the royal family, cabinet ministers and a high court judge – came forward in his support, writing letters to the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

Ball was cautioned by police. He resigned his post as bishop and retired to a rented cottage on the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall estate but continued to officiate in 17 public schools until 2007. A fresh investigation was opened in 2012 which led to his conviction.

One of Ball’s victims, Neil Todd – the first to come forward with allegations of abuse – attempted suicide three times before killing himself in 2012.

Welby ordered an independent review of the church’s handling of the case, chaired by Dame Moira Gibb, former chief executive of Camden council.

The report said Ball’s case was dealt with at the highest levels within the church. He “was seen by the church as the man in trouble who the church needed to help”.

Ball was portrayed as a victim, and the review found “little evidence of compassion for Neil Todd even though from the outset it was clear that he was a vulnerable young man who had come to harm”.

It added: “The church appears to have been most interested in protecting itself.”

In the foreword to her report, An Abuse of Faith, published on Thursday, Gibb said the serious sexual wrongdoing of Ball “is shocking in itself but is compounded by the failure of the church to respond appropriately to his misconduct, again over a period of many years”.

“Ball’s priority was to protect and promote himself and he maligned the abused. The church colluded. The church colluded with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring itself of the safety of others.”

The report added, “progress has been slow and continuing, faster improvement is still required”.

Gibb made 11 recommendations in her report, including improving support to survivors of clerical abuse and taking steps to “demonstrate the individual and collective accountability of bishops”.

Peter Hancock, the C of E’s lead safeguarding bishop, who received the report on behalf of the church, said it had failed Ball’s survivors. “Having read the report I am appalled and disturbed by its contents … As a church we colluded, we failed to act and protect those who came forward for help. There are no excuses. We accept all the recommendations and are working to action them.”

Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams: ‘It is clear I did not give adequate priority to sorting out the concerns and allegations surrounding Peter Ball.’

He added: “For the survivors, it may feel this is all too late.”

According to the report, Ball intimated “on many occasions, to Lord Carey and others, that he enjoys the status of confidant of the Prince of Wales” and “sought to exploit his contact with members of the royal family in order to bolster his position”.

Image result for bishop ball and camilla funeral and prince charles

Goddard inquiry: Outrage as bishop Peter Ball jailed for sex offences given public funding for legal team

Image result for moira gibb and prince charles

Image result for moira gibb and prince charles

Moira Gibb is made a Dame CBE by the Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace back in 2012

However, Dame Moira Gibb’s report went on, it “found no evidence that the Prince of Wales or any other member of the royal family sought to intervene at any point in order to protect or promote Ball”.

Image result for bishop ball and camilla funeral and prince charles

Carey was criticised in the report, which said he “set the tone for the church’s response to Ball’s crimes and gave the steer which allowed Ball’s assertions that he was innocent to gain credence”.

In a statement responding to the report, Carey said it made “uncomfortable reading” and he accepted its criticisms of him. “I apologise to the victims of Peter Ball. I believed Peter Ball’s protestations and gave too little credence to the vulnerable young men and boys behind those allegations.”

Carey said he regretted not putting Ball’s name on the Lambeth List – names of people whose suitability for ministry is under question – after he was cautioned.

Under the leadership of Williams, the church began reviewing past cases, a move which ultimately led to the criminal case against Ball being reopened, the report said. However, he was criticised as being “lamentably slow” in making change.

In a statement, Williams said: “Having read the report and reflected on its details, it is clear I did not give adequate priority to sorting out the concerns and allegations surrounding Peter Ball at the earliest opportunity. I recognise such a delay is likely to have increased the pressure and distress experienced by the survivors of his abuse and I am sincerely sorry for this.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/church-of-england-colluded-with-bishop-peter-ball-who-abused-boys-says-justin-welby?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

George Carey allowed church role despite part in abuse cover-up

Former archbishop of Canterbury was criticised in report into abuse by Peter Ball

13 July 2018

George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury who was heavily criticised in an independent report for his part in the cover-up of sexual abuse carried out by a bishop, has been allowed to resume an official role in the Church of England.

Lord Carey stepped down last year as an honorary assistant bishop at the unprecedented request of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, after a damning report which found the church had colluded over the abuse.

But it emerged this week that Carey has been granted “permission to officiate” (PTO) by Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, allowing him to preach and preside at churches in the diocese. Croft is reportedly under police investigation for allegedly failing to respond properly to a separate report of clerical sexual abuse.

The decision to grant the PTO was made in February despite expectations of further revelations this month about Carey’s role in the case of Peter Ball, a former bishop of Gloucester, at the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA).

The inquiry will spend a week scrutinising the C of E’s handling of the Ball case, starting on 23 July. Ball was jailed in 2015 for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men between 1977 and 1992. Prince Charles has been asked to give a witness statement to the inquiry about his correspondence with Ball.

Carey, who was archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, resigned his honorary post after the publication of an independent report on the Ball case by Dame Moira Gibb.

She concluded that senior figures in the church had “colluded [with the abuser] rather than seeking to help those he had harmed”. She said: “The church appears to have been most interested in protecting itself.”

Carey had “set the tone for the church’s response to Ball’s crimes, and gave the steer which allowed Ball’s assertions that he was innocent to gain credence”, said Gibb.

The former archbishop responded to the report, saying it made “uncomfortable reading” and that he accepted its criticisms of him.

In February this year, Carey contacted the diocese of Oxford to request a PTO, which was granted by Croft. It followed letters from members of the congregation where Carey worships that requested he be allowed to resume ministry at their church.

A spokesperson for the diocese of Oxford said: “The granting of PTO enabled Lord Carey to preach and preside in the church where he worships, a church where his ministry is much valued. The granting of a PTO does not indicate a planned return to the role of assistant bishop.”

It is understood that Carey underwent fresh checks on his criminal record and C of E safeguarding training.

The church’s national safeguarding team was not consulted on whether the PTO should be granted.

A survivor of abuse by Ball said he was extremely concerned to learn that Carey had been granted a PTO. “It’s a real stab in the back for Ball survivors,” he said, adding that it would have been prudent to wait until further evidence had been heard by IICSA.

Croft is one of several senior church figures, including John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, who are reportedly being investigated by South Yorkshire police over alleged failures to act on disclosures of an alleged rape of a teenage boy by a clergyman in the 1980s. The force declined to confirm or deny an investigation was under way.

Matthew Ineson claims he was raped by the Rev Trevor Devamanikkam, and in 2012 and 2013 reported the crime to senior figures in the church, including Croft. He alleges they failed to follow proper procedures and did not advise him to tell police.

Devamanikkam was later charged with indecent assault and buggery without consent, but killed himself in 2017 before coming to trial.

A spokesperson for the diocese of Oxford said: “Written records and notes taken at the time give a different picture to the one Mr Ineson is presenting about how his case has been handled.”

An independent review had been commissioned by the C of E’s national safeguarding team, the spokesperson said.

Ineson told the Guardian: “Steven Croft may disagree about the wording of my disclosures, but nonetheless accepts I did tell him of my abuse. No word of apology has ever been forthcoming for what I have been put through.

“Given the circumstances it is incredible that Croft is still in a position to decide whether PTO should be given to George Carey or anybody else who has been so involved in the dreadful case of Peter Ball or any other safeguarding case.”

PTOs are mostly granted to retired priests who wish to continue their ministry by preaching, taking communion and providing holiday or sickness cover to serving clergy. PTOs are granted at the discretion of the local bishop.

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/13/former-archbishop-of-canterbury-allowed-to-resume-a-church-role?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

Dame Alun Roberts‏ @ciabaudo

Doesn’t Welby have the clout to withdraw this permission to officiate?

Chichester church abuser ‘allowed back into choir’

27 June 2017

Alesha Racine

Alesha Racine has waived her right of anonymity to speak to BBC South East

A woman who was sexually abused by a lay vicar in Sussex says she was “completely failed” by the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.

Alesha Racine wrote to Lord Carey in 1992 after discovering her abuser had returned to the church where she had been sexually assaulted.

On Monday Lord Carey announced his resignation as an honorary bishop.

A review by Dame Moira Gibb found he had failed to pass on information about abuse carried out by Bishop Peter Ball.

Ms Racine’s abuser, Michael Walsh, was convicted of five indecent assault charges and confessed to sexual relationships with a further eight children.

He was sent to prison in 1990.

He had been a teacher, a lay vicar at Chichester Cathedral and also ran a choir at a church in Chichester.

Child abuse ‘inevitable’

After his release in 1992, Walsh returned to the same church to be part of the choir.

Concerned for the safety of other girls, in July of that year Ms Racine wrote to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, requesting his help.

 

Speaking after Lord Carey’s resignation, Ms Racine, 54, said: “I was very concerned that my abuser had just come out of prison and it appeared that he’d just gone straight back into the parish church where he’d originally worked, and was again in a position of authority in the choir there where young children – specifically girls – sang.

“I was really worried that these girls were at a huge risk. I felt it was inevitable that children would be abused.”

Three months after writing her letter she was told Lord Carey had been unable to consider her concerns because he was “committed to a series of visits overseas, together with his summer break”.

‘Duty of forgiveness’

She was informed one month later that the “Archbishop had been assured that there was no question of Michael Walsh being reinstated in the choir,” but nine months after raising her concerns she received a letter from the Archbishop’s chief of staff confirming her abuser was back in the choir.

Lambeth Palace wrote to Ms Racine saying the parish authorities had taken “great care” in coming to their decision to allow Walsh’s return to his position “weighing carefully the risk of re-offending against… the Christian duty of forgiveness”.

Michael Walsh

Michael Walsh, seen here in the 1990s, was allowed to return to the same church choir after his release from prison

The letters revealed Lord Carey regretted the decision which allowed Alesha’s abuser back into churches and offered her his sympathies.

Ms Racine said: “I thought his response was deeply hurtful, in that it had taken me a lot of courage to write to him at all.

“Most of what he said was in defence of the Church and the people in it, rather than try to reach out to me as a victim.

“I do feel it was a complete failure on his part.”

A spokesman for the former Archbishop of Canterbury said the correspondence with Ms Racine had been conducted on Lord Carey’s behalf by his chief of staff.

He said: “Lord Carey has absolutely no memory of this chain of correspondence or these events. He cannot therefore comment.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-40418476

 


2001

It is known Epstein and Andrew regularly holidayed together – from weekends at Balmoral and Sandringham, to trips to New York.

Epstein was, the source told The Times, ‘a big part of [Andrew’s] life’

Prince Andrew sits on a yacht in Thailand back in 2001, during a holiday at a £2,300-a-week resort which is thought to have come courtesy of Jeffrey Epstein

Image result for St George's School, Windsor Castle in Berkshire eugenie

 6th September 2001 – Princess Eugenie starts her new school at St George s Windsor Pictured with her parents Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew

St George’s School is known to be popular with royals, and former pupils include Princess Eugenie.

There is a big emphasis on “activities”, including the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, pony trekking and lace making. The boarders, most of whose families live near by, are encouraged to keep pets which, according to the school prospectus, “include hamsters, gerbils, mice, guinea pigs and rabbits”. Dances are shared with nearby Eton and Wellington while Eton often “borrows” girls for its plays. Old girls include the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

Joanna Grant Peterkin, 50, who became headmistress a year ago, was previously head of modern languages at St Paul’s Girls School, west London. Her father, Sir Brian Young, was once head of Charterhouse, and her husband, Peter, is a major general

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Arrested CH Staff Members

The men were all members of the school staff at the times of the alleged offences, police said – A paedophile Ring operating at the school?

  • No names are being revealed.
  • The Christian school is in the diocese formerly overseen by paedophile bishop of Lewes Peter Ball who is serving a 32-month sentence for abusing 18 young men between 1977 and 1992.
  • Sussex Police said officers arrested a 66-year-old man in North Yorkshire on January 29 on suspicion of raping a girl aged 16-18 in 1992-94.
  • He has also been accused of indecently assaulting another girl, 17, in 1994.
  • A 65-year-old man was arrested in Shropshire, also on January 29, on suspicion of indecently assaulting a girl, 18, in 1994, and a boy, 18, in 1990.
  • He has also been accused of indecently assaulting a boy, aged 15-16, in 1988 or 1989.
  • Officers also arrested a 62-year-old man in west London on June 12 on suspicion of indecently assaulting four girls aged 14-17 between 1985-1993.
  • All men have been bailed until December 15, a force spokesman added.

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Re: Punishments at CH

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Extract from The Blue for July 1978 page 74Confirmation was conducted by the new Bishop of Lewes, Bishop Peter, who also gave the Lenten Address: his visit was a most moving spiritual moment in the life of the Hospital”

and earlier:

The confirmation service was taken by the Bishop of Lewes during the sedes vacans between bishops Bell and Wilson. This will have been the confirmation of 1959.

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Dame Alun Roberts‏ @ciabaudo

If he didn’t know, he’s hardly fit to be King …

Richard Scorer: My clients accept the PoW has many interactions with Church of England clergy. However our clients do not accept that he claims he was not aware that a caution means an acceptance of guilt.

Scorer claims senior leaders in the Church knew of Peter Ball’s offending but Lambeth Palace did not hand over letters to police:

Mr William Chapman: There’s a reluctance to trust the secular authorities to handle the matter and a willingness to forgive and reintegrate Peter Ball, no matter what he’d done

Elizabeth Hall, Nat Safeguarding Advisor, recommending a further review of Peter Ball information which should involve trying to find all files/documents

Both Michael Ball and brother Peter Ball were not shy about using the name of the Prince of Wales to seek to influence others. Bishop Michael Ball wrote to Lord Carey in Dec 1992 saying that his brother was receiving support from 2 Cabinet Ministers and Prince Charles Peter Ball often mention their friendship.

On 8 March 1993 Peter Ball received a caution for one count of gross indecency against Neil Todd. He resigned immediately. Peter Ball alleged to the Church of England shortly that he either did not wish to resign, and accepted a caution to avoid a trial.

“This Inquiry has been provided with details of allegations made by a total of 32 individuals. These all relate to an alleged abuse of power by Peter Ball for the purposes of his sexual gratification.”

The former Bishop of Lewes, Peter Ball was convicted of two offences of indecent assault, and an offence of misconduct

Peter Ball admitted when pleading guilty that he received sexual gratification from the deliberate manipulation of vulnerable young men, that the contact was consistent with grooming and that he abused his position as a Bishop in the Church of England

 In January 1996, Ball was permitted by Archbishop Carey to preach at a particular public school and, to conduct confirmations at other specific schools later on in that year

(1) Why he was permitted to return to ministry in this fashion? (2) Why did no-one think to carry out some kind of risk assessment? (3) Whether or not senior clergy simply thought that Peter Ball’s pleas of innocence should be believed?

 “I really appreciate your sympathetic understanding in preventing a scandal with a trial which would have affected the Royal family and establishments in this crucial time of turmoil within the Church of England.” Bishop Kemp comments on a 1990s investigation into Peter Ball
A risk assessment carried out by the Church in 2009 identified that Peter Ball could be identified as a sexual predator given the length and scale of his offending

Watch:


 

Prince Charles gives evidence to inquiry into Peter Ball

The Prince of Wales says he was aware that Peter Ball, who lived in Aller, near Langport, had been given a police caution, but claims he did not realise it amounted to an admission of guilt.

Details of Prince Charles’s relationship with Ball will be revealed at an inquiry into the case on Friday.

The next in line to the throne had “decades of correspondence” with Ball and occasionally sent him “small gifts of money”, according to the draft copy of his statement to the inquiry, The Times has reported.

The statement will add that Ball confided in him in 2009 that he had been involved in an “indiscretion” years previously, which he blamed on a person with a grudge.

http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/16371173.prince-charles-gives-evidence-to-peter-ball-inquiry/

Paedophile Bishop Bell is also linked to Christ’s Hospital School

In the late 40s/early 50s CH Horsham came direct under the Bishop of Chichester, a Bishop Bell, I believe.

Incidentally, when he retired he was presented with a CH Leaving Bible — an almost unique honour

His CH Leaving Bible was presented to him in the spring of 1958, on the day after he carried out Confirmations at CH for the last time.

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CH Forum. ..quite a few “scandal” threads have been deleted

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Peter Ball was close friends with the royal family.

  • Peter Ball was propelled into the royal circle by two people. One was prebendary Willie Booth, a former chaplain at Westminster School, who’d taken over from Caesar. The other was Jimmy Savile.
  • Charles offered Ball sanctuary in a Duchy of Cornwall property when, in 1993, the bishop was forced to resign after being let off with a caution by police over allegations that he indecently assaulted a 17-year-old novice monk.

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Some CH students were sent to paedophile bishop Peter Ball

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From Christ’s Hospital School Forum:

Fri Nov 08, 2013

Punishments at CH:

I stayed with Peter Ball for a few nights due to sickness in my family.

I have since been involved, albeit slightly, with this case against him due to something he said to me. I haven’t had to go to court luckily, but several boys who were in his care have been left wounded for life sadly. The metropolitan police were contemplating paying for my ticket back to the UK to go to court, but nothing has come of that. Google him…you’ll see – he’s nothing but a downright pervert with a thing for boys.

 

 


Much of the abuse by Peter Ball in the 70s and 80s took place at the Rectory Litlington, East Sussex

“When it came to the abuse, the abuse was sexual, mental and physical. He was just not a very nice human being.[19]”

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The Rectory Litlington, East Sussex

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Allegations against Ball were first made in 1992 by novice monk Neil Todd, one of many boys abused at the bishop’s house at Litlington, East Sussex.

Bobbie Cheema QC, prosecuting, said the teenager had been introduced by Ball to what he called ‘penitential psalms’.

This involved saying prayers naked at night in a chapel before Ball watched the teenager taking a cold shower and pulled down his underpants.

Ball, who called the youngster ‘love’ and ‘gorgeous’, went on to suggest he be beaten with a stick or whipped so his body could ‘bear the marks’.

The abuse emerged after he tried to commit suicide in 1992. Gloucestershire Police launched an investigation, prompting more victims to come forward.

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Bishop of Chichester: Eric Kemp and Queen Elizabeth

Chichester diocese – many paedophile cover-ups

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Canon Anthony Caesar

Eric Kemp moved in elevated London circles and was a good friend of Canon Anthony Caesar, sub dean of the Chapel Royal and the Queen’s domestic chaplain.

Bishop Peter Ball often accompanied Bishop Eric Kemp on his London trips.

Kemp appointed the flamboyant Ball as his assistant in the post of bishop of Lewes, he fitted in immediately.

  • During his time in Lewes, Ball got to know Jimmy Savile well and he was the bishop’s principal entree into the Waleses’ household. After his appointment to Gloucester was announced, Ball became a regular visitor to Highgrove and was held in such high regard that Charles attended his enthronement.
  • ‘We knew that Bishop Peter and the Prince were good friends. He didn’t refer to him as Prince Charles. He would always say just Charles.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3265742/Jimmy-Savile-Prince-Charles-close-friendship-sex-abuse-bishop-Peter-Ball.html#ixzz4PtSOHEBS

A member of the royal family was among a host of establishment figures who supported a bishop as he tried to avoid charges for sexually abusing young aspiring priests, a court was told.

The former bishop of Lewes, 83, preyed on his victims for sexual pleasure when they came to his home in Litlington, East Sussex.

However despite the raft of allegations he faced his defence team said he had 2,000 letters of support including from cabinet ministers and a member of the royal family

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  • Ian Beer – Harrow – long time friend of paedophile Bishop Peter Ball.  Beer sent students from three different schools to Ball.
  • Other establishment schools that sent boys to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball via Ian Beer of Harrow:

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Ball links to top paedophiles who operated in East Sussex and London.

Archbishop Carey & Bishop Ball

  • Former Archbishop Carey Admits he “Deserves Criticism” over Bishop Sexual Abuse Cover-Up

The role of Lord Carey of Clifton in the case of Peter Ball will be scrutinised by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The former Archbishop of Canterbury
could face “explicit criticism” over how he dealt with a paedophile bishop, the head of the child abuse inquiry has warned.

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  • Christ’s Hospital School, West Sussex, where Queen Elizabeth is patron, is an episcopal school started in 1552 by King Edward VI for orphan children of poor Londoners.
  • Ex-staff arrested over historic sex abuse claims at top boarding school

06 November 2016

Police have arrested three former members of staff at a top boarding school, Christ’s Hospital School

on suspicion of historic sex abuse against pupils, including the alleged rape of a girl.

Sussex Police said the men were all members of school staff at the times the offences were allegedly committed.

The men, all aged in their 60s, were arrested in an investigation into historic alleged assaults at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, West Sussex.

The alleged attacks on as many as nine pupils are all said to have taken place at the prestigious school in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Christ’s Hospital charges boarders up to £31,500 a year and counts Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge among its former pupils.

Sussex Police said officers arrested a 66-year-old man in North Yorkshire on January 29 on suspicion of raping a girl aged 16-18 in 1992-94.

He has also been accused of indecently assaulting another girl, 17, in 1994.

A 65-year-old man was arrested in Shropshire, also on January 29, on suspicion of indecently assaulting a girl, 18, in 1994, and a boy, 18, in 1990.

He has also been accused of indecently assaulting a boy, aged 15-16, in 1988 or 1989.

Officers also arrested a 62-year-old man in west London on June 12 on suspicion of indecently assaulting four girls aged 14-17 between 1985-1993.

All men have been bailed until December 15, a force spokesman added.

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  • In brief:

  • Christ’s Hospital SchoolThree former members of staff arrested for sex abuse (1985-1994) against 9 pupils at the school – no names provided.
  • Bailed until Dec 15 2016


Royal family-linked Christ Hospital School where Queen Elizabeth is patron – another former CH teacher who had been arrested for csa was a good friend of Prince Andrew – teacher Richard McDonald

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Yet another paedophile friend of Prince Andrew: Father Gleed

“The birthday ball is the second royal invitation Gleed has received. Two years ago (1979), he joined Andrew and two female friends for dinner at the palace.”

Nanaimo Daily News

Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

Friday, June 12, 1981 – Page 18


Gleed at Canterbury Cathedral in England 1976

Father Gleed serves as chaplain for Pathfinder and Playfair, ships based in Toronto Harbor promoting “character training through adventure” for boys.

The Akron Beacon Journal

Akron, Ohio

Saturday, October 23, 1976 – Page 7

 


How a royal gift exposed sexual abuse at an elite Canadian school

Oct 12, 2017

Prince Andrew wanted to memorialize his friend and former chaplain at Lakefield College School.

The resulting tribute prompted paedophile Father Keith Gleed’s victims to finally break their silence.

L: Prince Andrew renews his memories of Lakefield College in 1985; which he attended in 1977; R: Keith Gleed

Nine years ago, Prince Andrew paid a visit to his Canadian alma mater: the prestigious Lakefield College School, just north of Peterborough, Ont. It was not the first homecoming for His Royal Highness. A teenage exchange student back in 1977, the Queen’s second son retains strong ties to his old campus and has reminisced often about how deeply he treasures those “life-changing” six months. But that particular trip, in May 2008, was especially sentimental. The Duke of York had a gift to present: a hand-carved baptismal font for the school chapel.

Crafted in part from a large rock that Andrew had delivered from Scotland’s Balmoral Castle, the font was created to honour a dear friend: the late Keith Gleed, an Anglican priest who served as chaplain at the elite private school between 1974 and 1980.

 

After meeting at Lakefield, Andrew and Gleed remained such good friends that the prince invited the reverend both to his 21st birthday party and to his wedding to Sarah Ferguson.

Shortly before Gleed died of cancer in 2001, Andrew even travelled to his hospital bedside to say goodbye—“surely a testament of true friendship,” according to Gleed’s obituary in the school newsletter.

The day the font was dedicated, staff and students joined Andrew inside the A.W. Mackenzie Chapel for the blessing ceremony. Dead for seven years by then, Gleed was fondly remembered as “the confidant of the troubled, the defender of the bullied and a true friend to all.”

In reality, Father Keith was none of those things. He was a pedophile who preyed on vulnerable young students and took his secret to the grave—only to have the truth exposed, ironically enough, because of Andrew’s well-intentioned efforts to enshrine his memory.

Maclean’s has learned that after the prince unveiled Gleed’s religious tribute, at least five former students came forward to report they were sexually abused by the one-time chaplain. Two have launched lawsuits against Lakefield College School (LCS)—including one graduate, now 54, who says it was Andrew’s gesture that spurred him to break his silence in 2014, prompting Lakefield to initiate a third-party investigation that triggered other victims to come forward.

“Greg was pained and haunted by the knowledge that a pedophile like Father Keith was permanently honoured with a baptismal font on the school’s premises,” says the man’s statement of claim, which seeks $5 million in damages. “Thereafter, Greg began to disclose the sexual abuse he had endured at Father Keith’s hands, which, up to that point, he had kept a secret.” (Although the lawsuits are not subject to a publication ban, Maclean’s has chosen, after consulting with the victims, to identify them by their first names only: Gregory and Edward.)

At Gregory’s urging, school officials removed the memorial font from the chapel. Its current whereabouts is unknown. Lakefield will say only that the one-of-a-kind piece “was removed from school property in 2014.”

That Keith William Gleed was a sexual deviant is not in dispute. Lakefield’s own independent investigators concluded in 2015 that the disgraced chaplain violated “the trust and authority” of his position and “afflicted harm on innocent students by engaging in sexual misconduct.” But the two lawsuits go further, accusing Lakefield of “failing to reveal, and in fact, concealing, Father Keith’s sexual misconduct” from parents and police, and permitting the abuse “to continue unchecked.” At the very least, the lawsuits allege Lakefield is liable for the conduct of its former employee, who was encouraged “to have regular, unsupervised and intimate physical and psychological contact with its students.”

Whatever the full truth, the revelations about Father Keith have landed Lakefield—one of the country’s most esteemed private schools—among the institutions now stained by sexual abuse, from church-run residential schools to elite preparatory colleges. At LCS (as at Toronto’s Upper Canada College, which endured its own abuse scandal in the early 2000s), neither the reputation of the academy nor the socio-economic status of parents and alumni proved enough to protect every student in its care.

“When he started at LCS, Eddy had been a happy and gregarious child who was eager to please and had a promising future ahead of him,” reads Edward’s statement of claim, which seeks $2.25 million. After Gleed sexually assaulted him, his life became “chaotic and crisis-ridden”—a downward spiral of substance abuse, petty criminality and crippling flashbacks. Edward is now 53. “[He] has above average intelligence,” his claim continues. “But because of the childhood sexual abuse he experienced at LCS and the lack of meaningful support he received while attending LCS…he has never achieved his full educational, vocational or earnings potentials and goals.”

Lakefield has filed statements of defence in both lawsuits, denying the allegations, denying it is liable for Gleed’s behaviour, and describing the damages sought as “excessive, exaggerated and remote.” The school also launched third-party claims against the Anglican dioceses of Toronto and Niagara, where Gleed was variously licensed after his ordination in 1960. Both dioceses “endorsed Father Gleed as chaplain” and held him out “as a suitable and respectable Anglican priest,” Lakefield alleges, “when they knew or ought to have known that he was not suited for the position.” (In their own statements of defence, both dioceses also deny wrongdoing—in particular, that church officials may have been alerted to Gleed’s abuse. Maclean’s contacted the lawyers representing the dioceses; both declined comment, citing the active litigation.)

Along with defending itself in court, Lakefield has retained the services of Profile Communications, a boutique Toronto public relations firm that specializes in crisis management. “We are the 911 of communications,” says the company’s website. Via the firm’s principal, Caroline Spivak, Lakefield answered a list of written questions from Maclean’s.

The school says “it had no knowledge of any alleged impropriety on the part of Father Gleed” in the years before Andrew presented the baptismal font. “Once the allegations were brought forward, LCS immediately put in place the necessary resources to support the victims and the independent third-party investigation it initiated,” Lakefield says. “Counselling was made available to all who came forward, and continues to be provided. The school also communicated broadly and openly with its community, encouraging all parties to participate fully in the independent third-party investigation. The safety and well-being of its students is always the school’s highest priority.”

Four of Gleed’s victims, including Gregory, shared their stories with Lakefield’s investigators. Edward did not, but his lawsuit brings to five the number of Gleed’s known accusers (another alumnus also came forward to allege he’d been sexually abused by a different school employee, a teacher named Colin F. Pickering, who died in 2011).

“Following the conclusion of the investigation, LCS acknowledged the tremendous courage it took for them to speak to the investigators and apologized for the harm inflicted by Father Gleed and for the pain they have endured,” the school says. “The investigators’ detailed findings have not been released in order to protect the deeply personal information disclosed by the victims.”

Prince Andrew, who has previously served as a Lakefield trustee, is now honorary chair of the school’s charitable foundation. How he reacted to the truth about his friend—or hearing that the memorial font he helped create was removed from the chapel—is not clear. “We decline to comment,” said a Royal spokesperson, referring all questions to Lakefield.

One of Canada’s oldest private schools, Lakefield was founded in 1879 as Mr. Sparham Sheldake’s Preparatory School for Boys. Though renamed Lakefield College School in the 1960s, the sprawling waterfront campus—315 scenic acres on the shore of Lake Katchewanooka—remains affectionately known as “The Grove.” The high school became co-ed in 1989, and annual fees currently range from $32,000 for a day student to $57,000 for a boarder (international boarders pay $63,500).

Lakefield’s motto is mens sana in corpore sano—“a sound mind in a sound body”—and its mission statement embraces seven core values, including individuality, environmental stewardship and trust. Along with Andrew, notable alumni include Felipe VI, King of Spain; Emmy-nominated actor Will Arnett; Kenneth Irving, the former CEO of Irving Oil; David Miller, the former Toronto mayor; retired Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie; Ottawa Senators defenceman Cody Ceci; and Anna Gainey, president of the Liberal Party of Canada.

When Gleed first arrived in 1974, Lakefield was still an all-boys academy, with approximately 250 students. Then in his early 40s, the veteran priest had already worked as a chaplain for other institutions: Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ont., the Anglican Young People’s Association, and the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets Corps Vanguard. He’d also been assigned to numerous parishes in his home city of Toronto, including St. James Cathedral downtown. In 1960, the Toronto Star interviewed him for an article about new priests. “I have a photograph taken at the age of two with a Bible,” Gleed told the reporter. “Ever since I can remember I have wished to become a minister.”

A prominent figure on campus, Gleed led chapel service every morning and acted as a residence supervisor. Funny and charismatic, he was well-liked by faculty and students; in one yearbook photo from the 1970s, Father Keith is seen walking down a hallway, surrounded by smiling boys patting his back and shoulders. As Gleed himself would later write of his six years at Lakefield: “Nowhere else have I found such a warm, relaxed, friendly, uncluttered milieu. It nurtures the whole person well!”

Father Keith was beginning his fourth year at Lakefield when Gregory enrolled in September 1977. He was in Grade 9, and eager for the opportunity. “I was excited,” says Gregory, who agreed to speak to Maclean’s via email. “I started at Lakefield with hopes about academic success, developing friendships, and being part of a community. The school’s emphasis on educating the whole person fit for me.”

As happy as he was in his new surroundings, Gregory’s home life was in tatters. His parents separated after he left for high school, and when his dad drove him back to campus at the end of Christmas holidays, his father specifically asked Father Keith to keep a close eye on his son, given their family troubles. Gleed agreed—and throughout that winter, 1978, the chaplain invited Gregory to his private residence nearly every day after classes.

Gregory’s statement of claim describes, in agonizing detail, what happened next.

“During these visits, Greg was alone with Father Keith,” the document reads. “Father Keith gave Greg alcohol (sherry) to drink and sat with Greg on the couch in his living room. Father Keith hugged and embraced Greg, touched and stroked Greg’s head, kissed Greg, and pulled Greg’s head against his chest. While doing these things, Father Keith spoke to Greg in a soothing and reassuring manner, but offered Greg little support with respect to his family problems. While Father Keith was hugging Greg, he also patted and squeezed Greg’s upper and inner thighs. Greg was uncomfortable and felt confused, uneasy and trapped during these encounters.”

During one visit—which would prove to be his last—Gregory woke up on the floor, disoriented. “Father Keith was on his back and Greg was lying across him, face down,” the lawsuit says. “Greg’s head was on Father Keith’s chest and Father Keith was holding Greg in an embrace. Father Keith asked Greg if he could hear his (Father Keith’s) heart beating.” The boy immediately jumped up, insisting he had to leave for supper.

“As Greg walked back to his residence building, Greg could feel that his clothes were no longer on properly,” his statement of claim continues. “His underwear were pulled up tight and twisted and his trousers were askew. His anus was uncomfortable and he knew Father Keith had penetrated him. He felt dirty and that he had been drawn into doing something shameful. When he returned to his residence, he went straight to [the] shower and stood there, frozen, for a long time.”

In that moment, Gregory’s entire life was altered. Though he managed to graduate from Lakefield in 1982, he grew increasingly introverted and despondent during his remaining years on campus, turning to alcohol to numb the anguish. By Grade 13, he was drinking constantly—a coping mechanism he would cling to in the decades to come. Rarely has a day passed without Gregory wrestling with suicidal thoughts.

“Being abused by Father Keith fundamentally changed who I am,” he says. “When I was young, I believed I could make a difference in the world and that I had an obligation to do so. Those dreams gradually disappeared over the years. Since the abuse, I have felt there was something intrinsically wrong with me. I have felt ashamed. I thought that I’d be blamed and no one would believe me.”

For more than 30 years, he told no one. “I knew my pain was there, but it was too large, too all-consuming and too all-defining to confront,” Gregory says. “It was safer for me to avoid the pain by accepting myself as being a failure, as always screwing up.”

Father Keith left Lakefield in June 1980, going on to serve at different Anglican parishes in the greater Toronto area. By 1985, he was once again working as a chaplain, this time at the University of Waterloo’s Renison College. “I’m having a ball,” he told the campus newspaper. “It’s the excitement of living in a community of students, the neat little things that happen.” Two years later, Gleed took a job at St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba.

He remained on the move over the next 15 years, transferring in and out of parishes in Willowdale, Mississauga and Oakville. He also kept in touch with Andrew, and when the Prince married the Duchess of York in July 1986, Gleed was among the Lakefield contingent that travelled to Westminster Abbey for the wedding. (To this day, Andrew remains close with a core group of fellow Lakefield “old boys.” Five times, he has joined former classmates for a reunion canoe trip in the Northwest Territories.)

Father Keith passed away on Feb. 3, 2001, two weeks before his 69th birthday. At his funeral, one nurse recalled how the dying priest appeared to be at complete peace—“almost joyfully ready for his next journey.” Gleed’s death notice appeared in both The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, highlighting “his joyous faith, his wonderful smile and his infectious laugh.”

By 2010—more than 30 years after he was sexually assaulted inside the chaplain’s private residence—Gregory decided the time had finally come to confront his abuser. He emailed the Niagara Diocese in the hopes of tracking down Father Keith, only to be told he had died nine years earlier. When a subsequent internet search turned up a news article about Andrew and the baptismal font, Gregory was devastated. “This reinforced ideas in me that no one would believe me, that I was insignificant, and that the abuse of me would not matter,” he says.

A year later, Gregory briefly separated from his wife. During counselling sessions aimed at repairing their relationship, he says he delved deeper into the abuse he experienced—and the pain of discovering that his alma mater had paid tribute to his tormentor. By August 2013, Gregory worked up the strength to start crafting a letter to Struan Robertson, then the head of school. Another year (and multiple revisions) later, he sent it, determined to have Gleed’s font removed from the chapel.

“I am a Grove Old Boy,” his letter began.

“Father Keith’s abuse is allowed to continue with each child that is baptized,” Gregory wrote. “I am certain there are other Old Boys in my position, who also find the commemoration of an abusive, manipulative pedophile contrary to the ideals of the Grove. I recognize that other Old Boys may have had a different experience of Father Keith. Despite this, Father Keith’s true nature sullies any positive experiences or benefit others may have derived.”

After removing the font, Lakefield sent a letter of its own to parents of alumni—“to share some important information regarding our past.” Dated Oct. 20, 2014, the letter laid out the basics of Gregory’s disclosure (without naming him) and encouraged anyone with information about Gleed to contact Lakefield’s third-party investigators: John Callaghan, a senior partner at Gowling WLG; Patrick LeSage, former chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court; and retired Toronto police detective Thomas Klatt, then a managing director of the private-investigations firm MKD International.

Signed by Nick Lewis, then the chair of Lakefield’s board of directors, the letter also contained a further revelation: that another former student had advised Lakefield in 2010—four years earlier—of a separate allegation involving the chaplain. But because that incident occurred after Gleed and the student had left LCS, and because the alumnus was adamant he did not want Lakefield to conduct a comprehensive investigation, the school honoured his wishes. “In light of the recently received allegation, however, it is clear to us that we must now take further action,” Lewis wrote. “These allegations are disturbing and heartbreaking, and we are taking them very seriously.”

Among those who received the school’s letter in the mail was Edward’s elderly mother. When she showed it to her adult son, he broke down—then proceeded to disclose, for the first time, what Father Keith did to him as a Grade 6 student in the mid 1970s.

“After lights were turned out in the junior residence, Father Keith frequently sat on the side of Eddy’s bed, spoke reassuring words to Eddy and rubbed Eddy’s body, including his neck and back,” reads his statement of claim. “Initially, he did so over Eddy’s bed covers and then, after Eddy became accustomed to this routine and the physical contact, he moved his hands under Eddy’s covers and below Eddy’s waist.”

On weekends, when fewer students slept in the residence, Gleed’s groping grew more intrusive. “Under Eddy’s covers, Father Keith stroked and fondled Eddy’s bottom, anus, inner thighs and scrotum, both over and under Eddy’s pyjama pants,” his lawsuit continues. “While touching Eddy in these ways, Father Keith spoke softly, encouraging Eddy to fall asleep. As his bed was against a wall, Eddy felt trapped and unable to escape from Father Keith’s unwanted touching.”

When Edward moved to a different house in Grade 7, the abuse stopped. One day, however, Gleed invited the boy to his private residence, supposedly to discuss Eddy’s behaviour problems. “When Eddy arrived, Father Keith was dressed only in a short bathrobe,” the claim reads. “When Father Keith sat down on his couch, his bare genitals were exposed. It was only when Eddy responded with unease that Father Keith made light of his exposure and covered himself with a pillow. Father Keith invited Eddy to come back and see him, and said he would answer any questions Eddy had about sexual matters. Eddy did not return to Father Keith’s residence.”

By Grade 8, Edward says he was so damaged by Gleed’s earlier molestations that he transformed into a different kid. He became withdrawn, confused, irritable and racked with self-doubt; he also began to smoke, steal and bully fellow students. His misbehaviour reached a boiling point near the end of 1977, when he and his mother were summoned to a meeting with Lakefield officials—including Gleed.

“Eddy was told he had to leave the school,” his statement of claim says. “The experience of being expelled in this way, with Father Keith sitting in judgment of him and without Eddy ever feeling able to speak about Father Keith’s abuse and betrayal of his trust, was devastating to Eddy.”

***

Gregory launched his lawsuit more than a year ago, in September 2016. Edward’s was filed in March. “My clients are determined to get justice and accountability, and will not be deterred by the prospect of a long court battle,” says Elizabeth Grace, their Toronto lawyer. “However, they are hopeful Lakefield will do the right thing by resolving their cases sooner than later.”

Grace credits the academy for agreeing to pay for counselling—and allowing Gregory and Edward to choose their therapists. “Otherwise, Lakefield has acted like any other defendant in these circumstances,” she continues. “The school is trying to defend itself against serious allegations of sexual abuse of its students by what appears to have been a prolific abuser, and so far it is requiring my clients to go through the rigours of a court process that can often be re-traumatizing.”

For its part, Lakefield says it responded to the revelations about Gleed in a manner “guided by the school’s values, its responsibility to the school community, as well as to the alumni who came forward.” That included communicating “openly and broadly” with all LCS stakeholders while the third-party investigation unfolded. (As Lewis, the board chair, wrote in one edition of Lakefield’s newsletter: “Never has there been a more significant demand on the board’s time than with this issue.”)

Father Keith Gleed (center), as seen in the 1979 Lakefield yearbook.

Lakefield also conducted an in-depth review of its policies and procedures, concluding that although they “were consistent with best practices,” there was room for improvement. Says the school: “LCS strengthened its procedures for reporting abuse and amended its policies relating to sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and sexual assault.”

For Gleed’s victims, that is hardly much comfort. The school’s present-day guidelines, no matter how robust, can never erase the damage done. “The expectation was that Eddy was going to be given an exemplary education,” says Edward’s older sister, Kathryn. “The minimum was that he would be safe—and he wasn’t safe. They had in their care an innocent little boy and they didn’t take care of him.”

“His childhood was stolen from him,” she continues. “If this had happened to me, I don’t know that I would have had the courage that Eddy has had to try and live a normal life.”

Like Edward, Gregory has endured so much misery over the years, from depression to anxiety to a paralyzing fear of crowds. He even struggled with bulimia. “I can’t experience joy or happiness,” Gregory says. “I distrust everyone.” Father Keith robbed him of something else, too: a sense of connection to his prestigious alma mater. “I lived there for five years, and was supposed to form relationships, both with the school and my peers, that would last a lifetime,” he says. “However, my wish and expectation of being part of the school community became impossible because I carried the secret of Father Keith’s abuse.”

At the very least, Gregory takes some solace in knowing Gleed’s baptismal font was hauled out of the chapel—though he, too, has no idea where it is now.

Prince Andrew revisits Lakefield College School and headmaster Terry Guest.

Prince Andrew revisits Lakefield College School and headmaster Terry Guest (1978)

Two other friends of Father Keith helped Prince Andrew devise the commemorative font. Terry Guest, who was headmaster of LCS when Gleed was chaplain, carved the font’s wooden base, while Lakefield alumnus Al Pace, a prominent Canadian studio potter, created the basin to hold the holy water. Both men’s contributions to the project were publicized in the school newsletter and in local press coverage of Andrew’s 2008 visit.

Now retired, Guest did not return phone messages seeking comment for this article. Pace replied to Maclean’s with a written statement via Profile Communications, the public relations firm working for Lakefield. “I’m extremely disappointed by the situation and my heart goes out to the victims,” Pace said. “I wish that Keith was here to have the opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.”

Now that the baptismal font is gone, Edward’s sister thinks Lakefield should consider commissioning a new memorial. “How about they put up a monument to the boys who were hurt, as opposed to the priest who hurt them?” Kathryn says. “And how about every year, they take the student body down to that place and say: ‘These are the boys who were not protected—and it will not happen again.’ ”

In the end, Grace says it will be up to Lakefield students and parents—former, current and future—to judge how genuinely committed the school is to confronting a dark chapter in its history. “Unfortunately, Lakefield as a boarding school is not the first to face allegations of this nature,” she says. “I have no doubt parents and prospective students will be watching carefully what happens with these cases.”

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-royal-gift-exposed-sexual-abuse-at-an-elite-canadian-school/

Gleed, an ordained Anglican priest, was chaplain at LCS from 1974 to 1980. During this time, he abused at least five boys who have since come forward to disclose the history of abuse. He died in 2001, but not before being stripped of his official capacity as an Anglican priest.

According to the Statements of Claim, this came following a sexual assault complaint to the Anglican Church of Canada by a student in 1992.

But it wasn’t until 2014 when LCS launched its own independent investigation into the allegations against Gleed. In 2015, Greg claims he received a letter from LCS advising him five people, including himself, had come forward. They each told their story of the abuse they endured by Gleed and another teacher who had preceded Gleed’s time at the school.

Investigators concluded Gleed and the teacher “violated the trust and authority of their positions and inflicted harm on innocent students by engaging in sexual misconduct.”

https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/7912090-two-former-lakefield-college-school-students-sue-over-sexual-assaults-by-former-chaplain/

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, left Gordonstoun before completing his secondary school, and graduated from Lakefield in 1978. The Canadian boarding school is popular with royals, and also counts King Felipe VI of Spain as a former student.

http://www.businessinsider.com/private-schools-attended-by-royalty-2016-11#6-lakefield-college-school-8

The Duke of York (Andrew)

Together with the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke of York is the most involved of the minor members of the Royal Family in Canada and makes homecomings here on a frequent basis, sometimes twice or more in a given year. One reason for his interest lies in the fact that he spent a half-year as a student at a Canadian boarding school, Lakefield College, near Peterborough, Ontario, from January to June 1977. This experience provided Andrew a network of Canadian friends and a broad knowledge of Canada, extended during frequent holiday trips here which have included several challenging canoe expeditions in the wilderness.

A good many of the Duke’s 25 homecomings to Canada have hinged on his role as a trustee of Lakefield College (and patron of the College’s Friends), and from his interest in education generally, although they have also included engagements on behalf of organizations as diverse as the Empire Club of Toronto, the Monarchist League of Canada and the BC Children’s Hospital.

http://www.monarchist.ca/index.php/our-monarchy/our-royal-family/other-members

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Born: February 14, 1932Died: February 3, 2001

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http://archives.anglican.ca/en/permalink/graphics1636

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Kracht also turned his gaze on an overlooked moment in his youth: when he was a teenager at the Canadian day and boarding school Lakefield College in Ontario, Kracht was sexually abused by the priest Keith Gleed, who died in 2001.

The initial discovery of Gleed’s crimes reads like a scene from one of Kracht’s novels: when the one-time alumnus Prince Andrew came to the school in 2008 to gift Lakefield with a baptismal font in honor of the late Gleed, five former pupils went public to reveal the truth about the criminal cleric. Two lawsuits against Lakefield are pending; the memorial font has been removed; the Royal family kept a stiff upper lip and declined to comment on the matter.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/sexual-abuse-and-critical-abuse-on-christian-krachts-the-dead/#!


 

Prince Andrew – After completing his O Levels, HRH spent two terms in 1977 at Lakefield College School in Ontario, Canada, on a Round Square Exchange Programme.

Round Square owes much to the heritage of Kurt Hahn, who founded two of our original member schools, Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, with Prince Max of Baden, and Gordonstoun in Scotland.

Round Square Board

Richard McDonald

Richard McDonald has played an active role within Round Square since 1994, when he took up post as Head Master of Aiglon College, Switzerland, a founding school. He served on the Round Square Board of Directors between 1996-2000. After a number of years as a Director at Collège Alpin Beau Soleil in Switzerland, recently admitted to Round Square membership, he returned as Head Master of Aiglon College in 2009. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS), of which he was Chair 2006-10. He regularly serves as an accreditation team chair for the Council of International Schools (CIS).

https://www.roundsquare.org/about-us/who-we-are/board/

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Eugenie ended up going to St George’s school because her parents’ first choice was a school, Aiglon, with a paedophile scandal…involving the head, Richard McDonald,who’s a friend of Prince Andrew.

That friend and head, Richard McDonald,

also taught as Christ’s Hospital School…and attended Gordonstoun at the same time as Prince Andrew

Rev Keith Gleed served at St. James’ as a boy chorister, a server, and an assistant priest

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Father Keith Gleed associate chaplain Renison College

 

[The Fall 1989 TBI Newsletter, came from the collection of TBI Alumnus, Rick Moore]

The Scarborough Sea Cadets honored guests with with a sunset ceremony.  Speeches were included – from Honorable Lincoln Alexander, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario who unveiled a plaque honouring the Founders, from Honourary Chairman Paul Phelan, from Francis MacLachlan – he designed the boats of course and  Maurice Smith -he was our first Captain.  Among lots of other TBI friends in attendence there was also in attendence Garf and Mary Lorriman with five of their six sons, Alan Hazell and Padre Keith Gleed.

https://tallshipsintoronto.wordpress.com/category/history-of-toronto-brigantine/

Trinity College School 1961

http://www.e-yearbook.com/yearbooks/Trinity_College_School_Record_Yearbook/1961/Page_49.html

TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL 
Gleed, the Rev. K. W. (1962, Chaplain) 

https://archive.org/stream/schoolonhilltrin00humbuoft/schoolonhilltrin00humbuoft_djvu.txt



Prince Andrew’s friend – Richard McDonald was a teacher at Christ’s Hospital School at the same as those 3 who have recently been charged.

&

The Christian school is in the diocese formerly overseen by paedophile bishop of Lewes Peter Ball who is serving a 32-month sentence for abusing 18 young men between 1977 and 1992.

  • Some students were sent from Christ Hospital School to paedophile Bishop Peter Ball for punishment.


Other establishment schools also sent students to Ball. Ian Beer of Harrow, who wrote a letter of support for Bishop Peter Ball also sent students (from 3 different schools) to Ball.

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St Benedict’s Laurence Soper, was chaplain at Harrow School from 1981 to 1991

  • Soper  appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on 19 Sept 2016 on charges of indecent assault and buggery.

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Barnaby Lenon was appointed as headmaster of Harrow in 1999

where in 2010 , a group of boys apparently stumbled across him looking at graphic images in his office.

Mr Hersey, 60, is not believed to have been suspended from Harrow, which charges £30,000-a-year fees. The matter was discussed with Harrow social services but the school decided there was no reason to involve the police.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0GS6YIYVdBUJ:https://www.standard.co.uk/news/harrow-school-teacher-keeps-job-after-gay-porn-download-6489722.html+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Anger as Harrow school lets  porn registrar Tim Hersey  stay

Jul 8, 2010

A  pornography scandal has rocked Harrow School.

Tim Hersey, assistant registrar at one of Britain’s most prestigious public schools was disciplined after using a school computer to access graphic homosexual images.The images were also seen by a 13-year-old pupil. But the senior school administrator has been allowed to keep his job – causing concern among staff at the school, which charges parents £30,000 a year in fees.School authorities even decided not to tell the police or the local education authority about any potential child protection issue. Mr Hersey, 60, was not even suspended. Teaching staff have been left shocked by headmaster Barnaby Lenon’s decision to keep him on.A school insider told the Daily Express: “Staff feel it’s an absolute scandal that Hersey has been allowed to keep his job.” An internal investigation confirmed that openly gay Mr Hersey had been downloading hardcore homosexual porn in the school office.
His highly inappropriate behaviour was only discovered when a pupil saw the images and contacted a staff member.But an insider told how dozens of boys could have been exposed to hardcore images. “The screen can be clearly seen through the window from outside the room. Anyone could have seen it. A 13-year-old boy came into the office and saw the images,” the insider continued. “I don’t think the headmaster handled the affair very well.”Mr Hersey was featured prominently in a TV documentary about the school broadcast earlier this year. The headmaster defended his decision to keep Mr Hersey on, despite question marks over how suitable he is for working with children.
Mr Lenon said: “A staff member was disciplined for a breach of the school’s computer code of conduct. This was a one-off incident and the staff member was reminded of his responsibilities.” He added that Mr Hersey had not been suspended and he had not told the police or the local authority about the incident.The Channel 4 documentary about Harrow School, entitled Too Poor For Posh School, followed a number of boys applying for scholarships. Harrow School counts kings, prime ministers including Sir Winston Churchill and Viscount Palmerston, and foreign statesmen including Jawaharlal Nehru among its former pupils.http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:J1F2mhlbkCwJ:www.express.co.uk/news/uk/185583/Anger-as-Harrow-school-lets-gay-porn-registrar-stay+&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ushttp://www.harrowassociation.com/netcommunity/document.doc?id=6012012-
Tim Hersey retires from Harrow, with a nice send-offTim Hersey oversaw all entrance scholarships
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Aou4bcHv6fkJ:www.welcomewebsites.co.uk/MHA/fanfare/2005_2006.pdf+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ushttp://www.harrowassociation.com/netcommunity/document.doc?id=6152016 
– Tim Hersey at Radley
After I arrived at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, on the afternoon of September 2nd 2016, 28 students and I were fortunate to have dinner with Tim Hersey, Dr Peter Wothers, Dr Ben Pilgrim and some students based in the college. Tim Hersey introduced us to the university and the course on offer for potential study. We shared a wonderful evening together talking chemistry with Cambridge teachers and students.http://www.radley.org.uk/Cambridge-Chemistry-Challenge-2016-WinnerIn September 2006, the daughter of a master at Harrow was attacked in her home, stripped naked, stabbed 66 times and her body mutilated by the drug-crazed schizophrenic son of another teacher.Shortly before he killed Lucy, he bought a chainsaw with which he planned to kill the son of another Harrow master.

Former abbot to stand trial for abusing 10 schoolboys

Ealing

A former Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing 10 schoolboys in the 1970s and 1980s will stand trial in October. Father Laurence Soper, 73, a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London, is charged with 18 sex offences including buggery and indecent assault on boys under 16. They are said to have occurred at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he taught first as a priest before being promoted to abbot.

http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/former-abbot-stand-trial-abusing-10-schoolboys/


Ian Beer Headmaster at Harrow School 1981–1991

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey also wrote to police in 1993 with letters of support for the then Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball who was being investigated for sex offences.

Several CH teachers and headmasters are linked with Gordonstoun school where csa files have gone missing

link


Former teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, Richard McDonald, an old friend of Prince Andrew and head of Aigon College….

arrested after being accused of molesting two children.

Aigon school has been plagued by a string of scandals in recent weeks.

Daily Mail (London) May 11, 2000

Duke Backs Sex Scandal School for His Daughters

THE Duke of York last night insisted he would still be sending his daughters to an exclusive Swiss school embroiled in three sordid sex scandals.

‘The Duke of York is aware of reports which have come from Switzerland,’ said his spokesman last night.

it was ‘a complete coincidence’ that the abuse allegations involving Mr McDonald had arisen at the time of the alleged sex attacks involving the anaesthetic trichlorethylene at the school.


The headmaster, Richard McDonald, an old friend of Andrew, has been arrested after being accused of molesting two children.

Three pupils at the college were also injured in March after being attacked with a man brandishing an anaesthetic spray.

And last December, teacher,Robert Kenneth, a first-year chemistry master from Ayrshire30, was fired over claims he had spanking sessions with gay lovers.

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Sir Toby Coghill, who appointed Mr McDonald five years ago and who stood down as chairman of governors at the school last July, said the allegations were a ‘human disaster’ for the teacher.

‘My concern throughout has been for the good name of the school and for the welfare of this guy

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The Birmingham Post (England)

hea-arrested-bea-scandal-school

2000

THE SCOTS head of Princess Beatrice’s new school, 

Richard McDonald,

has been accused of child sex abuse.

Gordonstoun-educated Richard McDonald, a friend of Prince Andrew is being held in a Swiss remand prison.

McDonald’s energetic leadership and educational outlook were key factors in the royal couple’s decision to choose Aiglon.

The school has been plagued by a string of scandals in recent weeks.

The headmaster, Richard McDonald, an old friend of Andrew, has been arrested after being accused of molesting two children.

Three pupils at the pounds 17,000-a-year college were also injured in March after being attacked with a man brandishing an anaesthetic spray.

And last December, teacher Robert Kenneth, 30, was fired over claims he had spanking sessions with gay lovers.

link

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Gordonstoun-educated Richard McDonald, a friend of Prince Andrew, is being held in a Swiss remand prison.

Aiglon School

VICE squad police questioning the former head of the exclusive Swiss school where Fergie is sending her children are flying to Britain to quiz his ex-colleagues.

fergie-college

2000 – Prince Andrew with Sir Tony Bamford

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HRH Prince Andrew (second from right) receives a cheque for £2 million from Sir Anthony and Lady Bamford for the NSPCC raised by JCB and its employees

Sir Tony Bamfordfriend of Prince Charles and listed in convicted billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s black book

epstein-bamford

  • and there were several phone numbers for friends Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

andrew-epstein-blk-bk

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Dec 2001 Andrew and daughter NSPCC

Royalty - Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Edward - Gordonstoun School Stock Photo

  • Gordonstoun 1982
  • Richard McDonald and Prince Andrew were contemporaries at Gordonstoun, a sister school of Aiglon
  • Richard McDonald – he taught French and was housemaster of Mid B until 1993 .

link

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mcdonald-bio

He served on the Round Square Board of Directors between 1996-2000. After a number of years as a Director at Collège Alpin Beau Soleil in Switzerland, recently admitted to Round Square membership, he returned as Head Master of Aiglon College in 2009. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS), of which he was Chair 2006-10. He regularly serves as an accreditation team chair for the Council of International Schools (CIS).

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  • Prince Andrew’s friend, Richard McDonald, who was charged with csa, was teaching at Christ’s Hospital School at the same time as those staff members who have recently been arrested.


  • The alleged attacks on as many as nine pupils are all said to have taken place at the prestigious school in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

https://i0.wp.com/keyframe.nava.hu/service/gallery/keyframe/2015/06/15/duna-80614/duna-80614-03085100.jpg

Richard McDonald, 40, taught at two top English public schools before moving to Aiglon College in Switzerland.


Police are investigating allegations that McDonald – a friend of Prince Andrew – had sexually abused two boys.

May 14, 2000

They say they want to build a history of his life. Before 1994 when he took the post at Aiglon in the Alpine village of Villar

Image result for Richard McDonald gordonstoun

Richard McDonald was modern languages teacher at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, West Sussex and at Charterhouse in Godalming, Surrey.

A police source said: “We will be trying to build up a picture of the accused man. The charges he faces are very serious so we should speak to people who worked with him and knew the man.”

McDonald’s computer has been seized and is now being examined for any evidence of involvement with paedophiles.

He has been in prison in Lausanne since mid-March but kept it from school governors, who had granted him a term’s compassionate leave to sort out his divorce. He has since resigned.

McDonald’s American wife Michele, 37, who lives close to the school, made the child-sex allegations during the divorce case.

Yesterday she said: “What I think of my husband is unprintable.”

But she insisted it was safe for Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to become pupils, despite a dormitory sex attack on three girl pupils in January and a teacher boasting of gay bondage sessions.

Michele added: “The Duke and Duchess of York have nothing to worry about. My son goes to the school, it is 100 per cent safe.” McDonald last night denied the charges against him.

He said: “This is all nonsense. I find myself in prison for the first time in my life for something I didn’t do.”

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/FERGIE+COLLEGE+SEX+QUIZ%3B+Swiss+vice+police+to+question+British…-a062077776

Scandal, though, was already in the air. Two months earlier, a chemistry teacher left after his homosexual fantasies were published on the internet.

Then came disclosures that three girls had been drugged and sexually assaulted in a dormitory

. .. it emerged that the headmaster, Richard McDonald, was not on a sabbatical but in prison on charges of sex offences against children.

Media stories of debauchery and drinking among the pupils followed swiftly.

link

Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)March 23, 2000

PUPILS ‘RAPED’ AT BEA’S SWISS SCHOOL; Girls drugged and assaulted in their dorm.

It was the Duke of York who was most keen to send his daughters to the British-run Alpine establishment. He was particularly attracted by the school’s ethos which was based on the philosophy of Kurt Hahn, the founder of the Duke’s own alma mater, Gordonstoun.

Family troubles: Former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken with his daughter Victoria during his trial for perjury

One of its former pupils is Victoria Aitken, daughter of disgraced former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken.

Mr Aitken fell spectacularly from grace when his libel trial against the Guardian and Granada collapsed. He had asked his daughter, Victoria, to lie in court on his behalf.

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In 2001 the Purdews of Champneys (friends of Sir Jimmy Savile and Keith Vaz) briefly acquired Inglewood health hydro from agents of Saudi prince Mohammed bin Fahd. Inglewood had been the scene of allegations, published in the Guardian six years earlier, that then defence minister Jonathan Aitken, a director of the spa, had tried to arrange girls for a Saudi prince and his entourage.

The report led to the notorious libel action brought by Aitken ultimately culminating in his being sentenced to jail for perjury.

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Former Tory MP Jonathan Aitken, once a director of Champneys Inglewood. He was accused by former employees of acting as a ‘pimp’ by requesting call girls, once for a sheikh and once for a group of Arabs.

Then he was embroiled in a legal dispute with former brothel keeper Lindi ‘Miss Whiplash’ St Clair, who claimed that she was thrown out of Inglewood partway through a course.

And though Aitken met his future wife Lolicia at Inglewood, he also cheated on her with bondage prostitute Paula Strudwick, telling her to collect the right sort of birch branches from the woods outside the estate for sadomasochistic sex games. You’d have thought someone would have twigged what was going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-259644/PS.html

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Jonathan Aitken, a close friend of Sir Peter Morrison’s

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FERGIE CHARITY MAN CHARGED.

The former boss of one of Britain’s biggest Royal charities has been charged with indecently assaulting a boy of 14.

Colin Gregg, 55, ex-administrator of the Yellow Brick Road charity, was arrested after the teenager told his parents he’d been interfered with following a golf club trip.

He has been bailed to appear before magistrates at Newcastle upon Tyne next month.

The married father-of-three, who was arrested on April 25, had his home in Newcastle searched and a computer disc removed by members of Northumbria Police’s Child Protection Department.

The boy is believed to have told police he was also interfered with in a sauna by Mr Gregg after a cross-country run.

Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein pictured strolling through Central Park together during a four-day break in New York at the start of December 2010 within days of the billionaire giving Fergie the £15,000 payment

Fergie:’I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me,’ she said.

‘I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf.

‘I am just so contrite I cannot say. Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again…

Prince Andrew was expected to hold crisis talks with the Queen today as he returned to Britain from a holiday in the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Verbier with his ex-wife Fergie, Sarah Ferguson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2897086/Cash-strapped-Fergie-took-15-000-paedophile-billionaire-centre-claims-Prince-Andrew-slept-age-sex-slave.html

The Duke and Duchess of York are presidents of the Yellow Brick Road, which is trying to raise cash to build three hospices in the north.

Gregg quit the charity in September to set up a business management consultancy.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/FERGIE+CHARITY+MAN+CHARGED.-a061167152



Context:

Klum’s ‘Hookers and Pimps’ party with the New York socialite accused of procuring underage girls for his billionaire pedophile friend

Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured with Prince Andrew at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party in 2000

The New York socialite stands accused of ‘procuring’ girls for Jeffrey Epstein around same time as party pictures

Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, is described in court papers as his ‘co-conspirator’ in ‘sexual abuse’

Accused of ‘facilitating Prince Andrew’s abuse by acting as a ‘madame’

‘Sex slave’ Virginia Roberts claims she met the royal at Maxwell’s home 

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Draped: With one arm over Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell's self-confident pose shows just how close she was to the Queen's second-born son 

Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured with Prince Andrew at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party in 2000

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Prince Andrew 2000 – The same year that Prince Andrew was keen to send his daughters to a school involved with a paedophile scandal connected to his old friend from Gordonstoun Richard McDonald, Prince Andrew was spending time with billionaire convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

One of the famous friends who entered Epstein’s fast-moving orbit was Prince Andrew, who appeared at a Florida function in 2000 with Epstein under the name “Andrew York,” the Telegraph reported. Soon, he was spending time at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, though Buckingham Palace denied he ever spent more than a few days there.

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https://i2.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/02/2460AE0000000578-2894911-image-a-6_1420236982592.jpg

Epstein visited Windsor Castle in 2000 for Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday celebrations and went to the Royal Family’s country retreat at Sandringham the following winter. Andrew also entertained Epstein at the Scottish estate of Balmoral.

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Prince Andrew first met Jeffrey Epstein through his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, in the 1990s.

Image result for prince andrew and epstein 2000

In 2001, Virginia Roberts, a 17-year-old who now claims to have been held as Epstein’s “sex slave”, was introduced to Prince Andrew while staying at Miss Maxwell’s London home.

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After his arrest, friends of McDonald set up a defence costs website asking for nearly pounds 200,000.

McDonald separated from his American wife after two girl students, 14 and 15, were raped in the early hours of the morning in the college.

At that time, in an attempt to cover up the scandal, the governors of the school claimed McDonald had taken a sabbatical.

link


Caroline suspect link to attack at Swiss school

A sex attack at a Swiss school where Prince Andrew intended to send his daughters has been linked with the man suspected of murdering Caroline Dickinson.

Two girls, aged 14 and 16, were anaesthetised, stripped and sexually assaulted at Aiglon College, in Villars.

The Duke and Duchess of York decided not to send Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to the school after the attack, on March 17 last year.

Yesterday, Swiss police said they wanted to interview Francisco Arce Montes and gain access to his DNA profile.

Montes, 50, is being held in Miami on suspicion of sex offences.

DNA taken by police in Florida closely matches samples found at the hostel in the French town of Pleine Fougeres where 13-year-old Caroline was raped and murdered in 1996.

The Daily Mail has also learned that police have evidence that Montes may have struck in Britain.

A 25-year-old office worker believes Montes targeted her when she was staying in a hostel in York in 1984.

The woman was woken three times by an intruder at the Holgate Centre where she was staying during a school trip. She was eight at the time.

Her mother – a teacher at her school – was sleeping in the next room and was alerted by the daughter’s gasp of terror when she saw a man standing over her at 3.00 am.

‘I’ll never forget that face as long as I live,’ the woman told the Mail yesterday.

When her mother confronted the stranger, a Spanish waiter, he claimed to be lost. He was arrested but released without charge.

The girl’s mother, who lives in Staffordshire, said: ‘It’s only now that we realise it was Montes. We’d recognise him anywhere.’

Police have interviewed the family as they piece together Montes’s move-ments throughout Europe and the Americas over the last 20 years.

They also think Montes may have attacked women in London where he lived between 1993 and 1997.

Former neighbours in Earl’s Court have said he drove to France in his white Mazda at around the time Caroline was killed.

During his time in London, Montes lured young girls back to his bedsit.

He loitered outside Earl’s Court Underground station, waiting for backpackers.

Montes has convictions for sex offences across Europe. Police in Tuebingen, Germany, have confirmed he served two years in jail in 1989 for raping a 22-year-old and attempting to rape a 19-year-old.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-40368/Caroline-suspect-link-attack-Swiss-school.html#ixzz4PTb5wTmv

Richard McDonald

Head Master

BA(Hons) French & German, Lincoln College, Oxford University

PGCE Lincoln College, Oxford University

After 10 years teaching in the UK – seven years at Charterhouse and three years at Christ’s Hospital as a housemaster –  Mr McDonald became Headmaster of Aiglon from ’94 to 2000. After seven years at neighbouring school Collège Alpin Beau Soleil he returned as Headmaster in ’09. His passions have evolved over the years from excessive amounts of cricket to theatre direction, karate instruction, skiing, creative writing, mycology and playing the saxophone. He was the founder of the Villars & Chablais Cricket Club, as well as the Villars Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, a 20-piece big band that has featured in palaces and festivals across Switzerland, including the Montreux Jazz festival in ’14. He was European Regional Director for Round Square ’96 to 2000 and Chair of the Swiss Group of International Schools ’06 to ’10.

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Christ's Hospital pupils

The Lord Mayor of London, Michael Bear, and CH school’s headmaster, John Franklin, on speech day in 2010. Students also play at the Lord Mayor’s Show (attended by the school band annually since 1981).

The current headmaster:

John Franklin, BA, since 2007; previously head of Ardingly College 1998 – 2007 

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Ardingly College – near the Bluebell Railway = Russel Tricker? – Amsterdam/videos? Dover customs?

ch-and-ardingly

Christ’s Hospital School

The Board of School Governors is delighted to announce that Mr Simon Reid, currently Principal of Gordonstoun School, will succeed John Franklin as Head Master of Christ’s Hospital with effect from September 2017.

Simon’s career has seen him teach in a number of prestigious schools including Brentwood, Stowe and Christ’s Hospital (1993-2004), where he held various posts including Second in the English Department and boarding house master.

After CH, Simon spent seven years as Deputy Head at Worksop College before taking up his present position at Gordonstoun in 2011.

Simon has a BA in English and Politics and a Higher Diploma in Education, both from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. His wife Michèle teaches French (her native language) and they have two adult children. Simon’s interests include architectural and landscape photography, writing poetry, reading and skiing.

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https://i0.wp.com/www.gordonstoun.org.uk/uploads/images/Campaign/Campaign%20Events/BP%202013/SR%20&%20HRH%20paint.jpg

Principal Simon Reid and his wife Mrs Michèle Reid & HRH The Princess Royal

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The appointment will be something of a homecoming for Mr Reid, who taught at Christ’s Hospital from 1993-2004

and held various posts including Second in the English Department and boarding house master

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Note dates: It appears that the new head of CH, Simon Reid, was a teacher at CH at the same time as those charged.

Sussex Police said officers arrested a 66-year-old man in North Yorkshire on January 29 on suspicion of raping a girl aged 16-18 in 1992-94.

He has also been accused of indecently assaulting another girl, 17, in 1994.

Officers also arrested a 62-year-old man in west London on June 12 on suspicion of indecently assaulting four girls aged 14-17 between 1985-1993.


Re: The New Headmaster.

Quote

May 24, 2016

Simon Reid the CEO/Head-Designate is effectively an Honorary Old Blue like Richard Poulton who indeed as HM 1986-1996 appointed Simon to the teaching staff 1993-2004.

gordonstoun-abuse-picgif

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Prince Andrew is pictured with the Queen and Prince Philip on his arrival at Gordonstoun School in Elgin

Prince Andrew is pictured with the Queen and Prince Philip on his arrival at Gordonstoun School in Elgin

Image result for alex carlile and cyril smith

Teacher at prince’s public school accused of sex abuse

gordonstoun-file-missing

Police files on sex abuse at Gordonstoun where Prince Philip and Prince Charles were educated have vanished

Official police files on allegations of sex abuse at Scottish school missing

Files on teacher accused of sexually assaulting pupils cannot be found

Derek Jones accused of fondling boy, 12, and taking naked photos of him

Scotland’s Crown Office confirmed files on the 1990 case had disappeared

Derek Jones, a former English teacher at Aberlour House, Gordonstoun’s junior school, was accused of fondling and taking naked photographs of a pupil in 1990

Jones is one of a number of teachers involved in historic sexual abuse allegations at Aberlour House and Gordonstoun in Moray. Aberlour House was the preparatory school to Gordonstoun, and had its own headmaster and governors, until the school’s merged into one site in 2004.

Other allegations of abuse include the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Last year, Gordonstoun maths teacher…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3142099/Police-files-sex-abuse-Gordonstoun-Prince-Philip-Prince-Charles-educated-vanished.html#ixzz4PTQlgzwT

Image result for alex carlile and cyril smith

gordonstoun-abuse

Prince Charles described it as “Colditz in kilts” and earlier this year Gordonstoun faced allegations of historical sexual abuse at its former prep school, Abelour House.


Christ’s Hospital School:

Visit to the school by its Patron, Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh

2003

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christs-school-royal-visit

2003 Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visit Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex, southern England. The Queen toured the facilities before attending a commemoration service to mark 450 years of Royal Patronage.  

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2003 Queen and John Shippen Christ’s Hospital
1966 to 2004 · West Horsham, West Sussex, United Kingdom

Group Scout Leader of Christ’s Hospital and Warden of the South Lakeland Scout Base.
House master Head of Geography Scout Leader Editor ‘The Blue’ Choir Director

Now retired

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School Pays [Pounds Sterling]2,500 to Boy Who Came Home with 40 Bruises

Daily Mail (London), June 9, 1999

Paul Sterrett arrived home covered in bruises just three weeks after enrolling at Christ’s Hospital School.

He told his parents he had been the victim of ‘dormitory punishments’ and that one boy had repeatedly kicked him while whistling the theme tune of Match of the Day.

Paul’s father Ian and mother Sue complained to teachers at the 447-year-old school in Horsham, West Sussex. But, they say, despite assurances that the bullying would be

stamped out, Paul was attacked twice more when he returned.

The parents, who live in Crawley, West Sussex, then withdrew him from the school completely.

Solicitors for the family threatened to sue Christ’s Hospital for negligence and breach of a duty of care towards Paul.

The school denied liability but agreed to pay [pounds sterling]2,500 in an out-of-court settlement which was approved at Horsham county court last week.

Yesterday, Mr Sterrett, 41, a British Airways customer services representative, recalled

his son arriving home after his first weeks at the school.

‘My wife screamed when she saw what he looked like,’ he said.

‘Paul had about 40 bruises all over his body and it was obvious there had been some pretty systematic bullying in his dormitory.

‘He told us there were various punishments, one of which was called “milking”, where younger boys had their nipples squeezed extremely hard until it caused bruising.

Mrs Sterrett, 43, said that Paul, who is now 12, was the youngest in the school when he enrolled at Christ’s Hospital in September 1997 a year early because he was considered very bright, particularly in mathematics.

When we complained, the headmaster said we should take a couple of steps backward and let them get on with it they had been looking after boys for hundreds of years and had a lot of experience.

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christs-school-charles

5th December 2000 Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, meets members of the Christ’s Hospital School choir during a visit to the Tinsey House detention centre for illegal immigrants at Gatwick Airport .

The Prince looked at art and craftwork done by the residents who are either waiting to be returned home after their asylum attempts have failed or are awaiting the result of applications. The centre is a blue print for three other purpose-built facilities being planned elsewhere in the country which are designed to speed up the process of returning immigrants home once their attempts to seek asylum have failed.

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2015 Students have been building water tanks in Thailand and working with Romanian orphans.

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Christ’s Hospital School

Chaplain 1962 -1980 John Robson

The Guardian

London, Greater London, England

Tuesday, September 2, 1997 – 51

Chaplain John Robson – He became  Chaplain to the Queen and was friends with The Rev Eric Abbott. 

Robson and Princess Margaret: The two of them had little in common but their religious faith and a devotion to a man both regarded as a father figure, one-time Dean of Westminster The Rev Eric Abbott.

It was to Mr Abbott that Princess Margaret turned after the death of George VI. For 30 years he was “guide, philosopher and friend” to her according to Mr Robson.

Princess Margaret would take communion at The Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, just by the Savoy Hotel. The chapel was a favourite of her father’s and she had her own stall complete with coat of arms.

It was noted how she would always attend before flying off to Mustique, the joke among staff being that she was making sure she was “shriven” before misbehaving in the Caribbean.

…he said. “Like all of us, she had a dark side – that was part of her attraction.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/margarets-anger-at-archbishop-6330525.html

Cloak of mystery as headmaster Dr David Newsome resigns

The Guardian

London, Greater London, England

Saturday, January 13, 1979 – 1

Dr David Newsome – friend of Malcolm Muggeridge

Adrian Fulcher, Senior Grecian in our year and latterly member of a very secretive Government department, and who knew him a lot better than I did, once told me that Private Eye had run a story on the shenanigans surrounding Newsome’s contractually premature departure from CH in 1979

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Maih2srxDH4J:www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D3770%26start%3D15+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Catholic boarding schools ‘prioritised monks and their reputations over children’s safety’, sexual abuse inquiry finds

Inquiry finds children as young as seven were sexually abused at Ampleforth, and 11 at Downside

9 Aug 2019

Two leading Catholic schools “prioritised monks and their own reputations over the protection of children” who were sexually abused, a report has found.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found that pupils at Ampleforth, in Yorkshire, and Downside, in Somerset, suffered “appalling” treatment stretching over decades.

The inquiry found that children as young as seven were sexually abused at Ampleforth, and 11 at Downside, amid a “culture of acceptance of abusive

Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the inquiry, said: “For decades Ampleforth and Downside tried to avoid giving any information about child sexual abuse to police and social services.

“Instead, monks in both institutions were very often secretive, evasive and suspicious of anyone outside the English Benedictine Congregation.

“Safeguarding children was less important than the reputation of the church and the wellbeing of the abusive monks.

“Even after new procedures were introduced in 2001, when monks gave the appearance of cooperation and trust, their approach could be summarised as a ‘tell them nothing’ attitude.”

The report found that the true scale of sexual abuse at the fee-paying schools, whose alumni include politicians, aristocrats and celebrities, was likely to be “considerably” more widespread than conviction figures reflect.

Both schools are linked to the English Benedictine Congregation, which has 10 monasteries in England and Wales.

IICSA found that “secretive, evasive and suspicious” church officials had avoided reporting misconduct to police and social services.

The report said allegations stretching back to the 1960s encompassed “a wide spectrum of physical abuse, much of which had sadistic and sexual overtones”.

So far 10 individuals linked to the schools, mainly monks, have been cautioned or convicted over sexual activity or pornography offences involving a “large number of children”.

One alleged offender at Ampleforth, which currently charges £35,424 a year for senior boarders, abused at least 11 children aged between eight and 12 over a “sustained period of time”, but died before police could investigate.

“Many perpetrators did not hide their sexual interests from the children,” the report found, allowing abusers at Ampleforth to prey on entire groups of pupils both outdoors and indoors during communal activities.

“The blatant openness of these activities demonstrates there was a culture of acceptance of abusive behaviour.”

Victims and witnesses who gave evidence during weeks of inquiry hearings last year said the culture was fostered by abbots leading the schools.

In 2001, the Nolan Report recommended all sexual abuse allegations within the church must be referred to police, but many allegedly felt the position was “neither obligatory nor desirable”.

“For much of the time under consideration by the inquiry, the overriding concern in both Ampleforth and Downside was to avoid contact with the local authority or the police at all costs, regardless of the seriousness of the alleged abuse or actual knowledge of its occurrence,” the report said.

“Rather than refer a suspected perpetrator to the police, in several instances the abbots in both places would confine the individual to the abbey or transfer him and the known risk to a parish or other locations.”

But details of the monks’ predatory past was not always passed on to their new residence, where “children were then abused as a consequence.”

Downside, which now charges £33,861 per annum for senior boarders, paved the way for the return of offenders such as Nicholas White, who became his first victim’s housemaster despite staff knowledge of the abuse allegations.

Four suspected paedophiles were feared to remain at Downside as recently as last year, when the former abbot Aidan Bellenger sent two letters to Dom Leo Maidlow Davis containing information that was not passed to the local authority safeguarding lead.

Mr Maidlow Davis later apologised, but the report said: “The whole incident, having occurred so recently, gives no cause for confidence that the attitudes at Downside had changed enough to put children first over threat to reputation and embarrassment to senior members of the monastic order.”

The congregation’s most senior clergymen, including past presidents Richard Yeo and Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard, refused to fully accept that criminal activity was tolerated when questioned at the inquiry.

Accountability within the congregation was exacerbated by “no recognisable line management oversight”, IICSA found, with the monastic order appearing “collaborative rather than hierarchical”.

The inquiry suggested that a “strict separation” between the abbeys and schools was needed to ensure school safeguarding was free from the “often conflicting priorities of the abbeys”.

Neither school has established a redress scheme for victims and “no public apology has been made” outside of the context of the inquiry, the report said.

Richard Scorer, a lawyer from Slater and Gordon who represented several victims at the inquiry, called for the onward reporting of sexual abuse allegations to be made legally mandatory.

“The abhorrent and disgraceful abuse in the Catholic church has once again been laid bare by this inquiry,” he said.

“This familiar and shameful story of coverup has been told time and time again, and is a devastating indictment of an organisation guilty of gross failures on child protection. It is clear that the Catholic church is woefully incapable of policing itself.”

A spokesperson for Ampleforth College said it was developing its first ever safeguarding charter and would review IICSA’s findings to make further improvements.

“We remain completely focused on the safety and wellbeing of those entrusted to our care and our commitment to implement meaningful change,” he added.

“We would like to once again offer our heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered abuse while in the care of our schools, parishes or other ministries.”

A spokesperson for Downside School offered a “sincere and unreserved apology to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse suffered as a result of the actions of some within the Downside community”.

“The abbey and school fully acknowledges the serious failings and mistakes made in both protecting those within our care and responding to safeguarding concerns,” he added. “We have reflected deeply and will continue to listen with the ear of the heart going forward to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated.”

Since the inquiry hearings in November, it has appointed a new headmaster, new chair of governors, carried out a safeguarding review, removed monks from senior positions and is moving the school into a new independent trust.

The Catholic church is one of 13 strands of IICSA’s ongoing investigations, which have included probes into other religious institutions, schools, youth detention centres, government programmes and mental health units.

The inquiry will also examine allegations of child sexual abuse by “people of public prominence” in Westminster and grooming gangs in Telford, Rotherham and other areas.

An interim report published in April found that “all too often institutions are prioritising the reputation of political leaders or the reputation of their staff, or avoiding legal liability, claims or insurance implications, over the welfare of children and tackling child sexual abuse”.

Theresa May established IICSA, which is expected to cost up to £100m, as home secretary in 2014, to examine how UK institutions handled their duty to protect children from sexual abuse following the Jimmy Savile scandal.

But it quickly became the subject of controversy following the resignation of three chairs – Baroness Butler-Sloss, Fiona Woolf and Dame Lowell Goddard – and a data breach that resulted in a £200,000 fine.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-sex-abuse-catholic-school-ampleforth-downside-iicsa-inquiry-a8484406.html

IICSA – Ampleforth  Week 1

Nov 27 2017

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/3360/view/Week%201%20timetable%20for%20EBC%20case%20study%20hearing.pdf

Ampleforth in Charity Commission takeover amid concerns of its management of sex abuse allegations

Ampleforth Abbey has been stripped of responsibility for pupil welfare by the Charity Commission amid concerns about its management of sex abuse allegations.

The Commission has removed responsibility for safeguarding matters from trustees at the prestigious boarding school as it said it had not improved its policies enough since an inquiry into the charity following allegations of sexual abuse was launched in 2016.

It said it had taken action “as a result of continued concerns about the extent to which current safeguarding risks to pupils at the schools run by the charities are being adequately managed”. 

The Commission opened inquiries into Ampleforth Abbey and the St Laurence Education Trust in November 2016 following revelations that alleged sexual abuse at the school had been covered up. 

Ampleforth Abbey runs a 200-year-old religious community on the same site as Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, which is run by the St Laurence Education Trust. St Laurence also runs prep school St Martin’s Ampleforth, which announced its closure earlier this year.

Last year the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard that allegations of sexual abuse had been made against 40 monks and teachers who had previously lived or worked at the Catholic boarding school and religious community. 

Emma Moody, a specialist charity lawyer at Womble Bond Dickinson, has now been appointed as interim manager of both charities.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/03/ampleforth-charity-commission-takeover-amid-concerns-management/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

Former Ampleforth College monk charged with 23 historic child sex offences

North Yorkshire Police have charged a former monk from Ampleforth with 23 non-recent child sex offences. Peter Turner, 79, from Redcar, who was previously known as Father Gregory Carroll, is due to appear at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on April 8, 2019.

26 March 2019

The charges relate to three victims in total, one in Ampleforth and two in Cumbria, who were aged between 9 and 13 at the time of the alleged offending. A spokeman for the force said: “Fifteen of the alleged offences were against a pupil at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire between 1984 and 1987. “Charges relating to these allegations at Ampleforth include gross indecency, indecent assault and buggery. “The remaining eight were against altar servers at a parish church in the Workington area of Cumbria between 1987 and 1990. “The charges relating to Cumbria include indecent assault and gross indecency.”

 https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/former-ampleforth-college-monk-charged-with-23-historic-child-sex-offences-1-9673470

‘Forty’ abusers at Catholic school

November 28 2017

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is accused of being a “honeypot” for offenders

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is accused of being a “honeypot” for offenders

Forty monks and teachers have been accused of sexually abusing boys at a leading Roman Catholic school that allegedly became a “honeypot” for offenders, it was revealed yesterday.

Reports of child sex offences at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire were disclosed yesterday at a public hearing of an inquiry into the handling of abuse allegations by the Catholic church.

As a case study, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) is examining safeguarding policies at two fee-paying boarding schools run by the English Benedictine Congregation — Ampleforth, and Downside in Somerset. Riel Karmy-Jones, QC, counsel to the inquiry, said that it would consider the prevalence of child abuse within the Catholic church and the extent to which Catholic culture “has or does inhibit the proper investigation and prevention” of such crimes.

Since 1996 three monks and two lay teachers at Ampleforth have been convicted of sex offences against pupils, but Ms Karmy-Jones said that the inquiry had been notified of multiple allegations against about 40 monks and teachers.

In an opening statement on behalf of 29 abuse survivors Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, the law firm, said that the “temptation to cover up” such crimes was “particularly acute in institutions associated with the Roman Catholic Church”. He said: “Where reputation is key to an organisation’s existence, there is likely to be an almost overwhelming desire to find some way of avoiding the bad publicity associated with child sex abuse.” Shared awareness among child abusers that their misconduct would be covered up, or dealt with in-house, explained why “some institutions become honeypots where multiple offenders operate”.

Mr Scorer urged the inquiry to consider recommending a change in the law to make failure to report abuse a criminal offence.

On behalf of 14 victims and survivors, David Enright said that it was “very difficult to explain” to a non-Catholic “the power and depth of influence the Catholic church exerts over its members. The abusers were not only men in positions of trust; they were seen by the abused, and their families, as spokesmen for the God they worship. It is hard to imagine a greater hold that a child abuser could have over his victim.”

Matthias Kelly, QC, counsel for Ampleforth, said that the school and the abbey wanted “to apologise for the hurt, injury, distress and damage done to those who were abused as a result of our failings”. He said that the school’s policy today was one of “full, transparent and immediate co-operation with the statutory agencies”.

For Downside and the English Benedictine Congregation, Kate Gallafent, QC, said that the Catholic church was committed to giving the inquiry “its full co-operation. The congregation expresses profound shame that any child has been the victim of sexual abuse whilst in the care of the schools connected with its abbeys.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/forty-abusers-at-catholic-school-w75b7wfjg

Mr Slater – worked at both Christ’s Hospital School and Ampleforth both schools filled with paedophiles.

The name had come up in conversation at IHT’s cottage when JDS (Headmaster John Shippen) and IHT were discussing Mr. Slater, who had been a CH Housemaster and formerly a monk at Ampleforth.

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Top public school suspends child sex charges teacher

3 Mar 2017

THE head of music at a prestigious private school has been suspended following allegations he sexually assaulted a pupil three decades ago.

Sean Ambrose Farrell, 49, denied two charges of indecent assault and two charges of gross indecency when he appeared before York magistrates last week.

All four offences are alleged to have been committed against a child aged under 14 at the time at Ampleforth College’s junior school.

Farrell, of Riddings Road, Ilkley, was released on bail on condition that he has no unsupervised contact with children aged under 16.

He has been removed from his post at Wellington College, in Berkshire – which counts the late actor Sir Christopher Lee and Will Young among its alumni – several months ago after North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation.

A Wellington College spokesman said: “In line with our safeguarding procedures, Wellington suspended the member of staff concerned and excluded him from the school site as soon as it was made aware that the police were investigating these accusations.”

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15132702.Top_public_school_suspends_child_sex_charges_teacher/

Press release
New charity investigation: Ampleforth Abbey and St Laurence Education Trust
Dec 13 2016

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Ampleforth Abbey, registered charity number 1026493 and St Laurence Education Trust, registered charity number 1063808.

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St Benet’s Hall is governed by the St Benet’s Trust, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ampleforth Abbey Trust.

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Former headmaster resigns over Fort Augustus abuse claims

5 August 2013

A former headmaster of a scandal-hit Catholic boarding school has resigned from a senior role at a Benedictine college of Oxford University.

Father Francis Davidson is accused of covering up child sex abuse during his time at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands.

He is quitting as monastic superior of St Benet’s Hall.

He was responsible at the Oxford college for the welfare of student monks.

Fr Davidson’s resignation follows a BBC Scotland investigation into physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus and its preparatory school in East Lothian, Carlekemp.

In total, 10 monks are now accused of physical abuse; four monks and one lay teacher of sexual abuse including rape; and three headmasters of cover-ups.

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Another paedophile priest at FortAugustus

Priest, Father Paul Moore ,  convicted 20 years after first confessing

14 March 2018

Moore

Moore was sent to Fort Augustus after allegedly admitting child abuse to the bishop

An 82-year-old Catholic priest who confessed to his bishop more than 20 years ago that he had abused young boys has finally been convicted.

Father Paul Moore has been found guilty of sexually abusing three children and a student priest in crimes spanning more than 20 years.

One of his victims was just five years old.

A BBC Scotland investigation reported five years ago that Moore had admitted in 1996 that he had abused more than one boy years earlier, and it was initially covered up by the bishop.

The then Bishop of Galloway, Maurice Taylor, did not contact the authorities about the priest’s confession until eight months later. Instead, he sent him to a treatment centre in Toronto.

Bishop Taylor removed the priest from his parish in Prestwick, Ayrshire, and later sent him to Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands, which was run by Benedictine monks.

The attached school was by this time closed, but the abbey remained open. That is where Moore joined monk Richard White – who was also a self-confessed paedophile, later jailed for five years for child abuse.

The 2013 BBC documentary Sins of Our Fathers told how Moore was still living in a house which was purchased by the church.

Bishop Taylor said Moore had told him about actions that “occurred years previously”, and that the priest was removed from the pastoral ministry after the admission.

The bishop said: “The initial advice I was given was that since no allegations had been made against Moore but that he had made personal admission to me, I didn’t need to inform the authorities.”

The bishop said he arranged a meeting with the procurator fiscal in Kilmarnock in November 1996.

He said: “The Crown Office informed us in 1999 that they had decided not to proceed with any action but the case remained open.”

It was only when the victims came forward after the BBC documentary that the criminal case was brought.

n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.

Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.

He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”

Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.

He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.

n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.

Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.

He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”

Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.

He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.

Also in the 2015 follow-up, the BBC revealed a second man, another former altar server and now in his late 40s, was abused by Moore for several years as a teenager in Ayrshire.

The investigation obtained a copy of a £10,000 cheque given to the man by Moore in 2009.

Moore denied the cheque was “hush money” and says it was meant as a loan.

Moore being shown the cheque by Mark Daly

Moore being shown the cheque by Mark Daly

When confronted, Moore denied that he had confessed any child abuse to Bishop Taylor.

He accepted he was aware the man had made allegations against him, and was asked if he accepted that a payment to an alleged victim may look like “hush money”.

He responded: “Sure, it looks now, I realise that now in these times but it’s not that, it wasn’t hush money.

“In the Bible it says lend without hope of getting things back… as far as I’m concerned he can keep it.”

Asked if the two men were lying about the abuse claims, Moore said: “No, they’re not lying. They think that’s what it is. But it’s not.”

Some of the abuse was alleged to have taken place at St Mark’s Primary School in Irvine

The court case also heard from another man, now in his 40s, who told how Moore sexually assaulted him at St Mark’s primary school in Irvine in 1976.

Nowadays that crime would have been classed as rape.

Another man told of an occasion when he was abused at Irvine’s Magnum Centre when he was still a child.

Moore was ordained in 1960 and served in six different parishes in the south west of Scotland before retirement.

In 1995, he abused a student priest and around the same time he was found to have repeatedly stared at the bodies of young boys in Prestwick swimming pool.

Soon after this he made his confession to the bishop.

Bishop Taylor

Bishop Taylor was told of the abuse in 1996

Bishop Taylor, who is now 92, appeared in court and said Moore had admitted to him in 1996 that he had a desire to abuse minors and he knew it was wrong.

He spoke of abusing boys while they slept and others at a swimming pool.

The bishop was shown personnel records he had taken in 1996 when Moore asked to see him.

He told the bishop he had sexual involvement with two males who had been underage at the time.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-43398633

Top school hid sex abuse claims

●Ampleforth pupils ‘denied justice’ at trial of ex-teacher ● Judge and police criticised as former student’s suicide revealed

Ampleforth, where James Glynn was a pupil. He killed himself after claiming he had been abused. Paul Sheppard, a Canadian who taught there, was found not guilty last year of indecently assaulting a boy there 27 years ago

A bungled inquiry linked to a cover-up of alleged sex abuse at Britain’s leading Catholic school denied justice to a teacher’s child victims, former pupils have claimed.

Paul Sheppard, a Canadian who taught at Ampleforth College, was found not guilty last year of indecently assaulting a boy there 27 years ago. The jurors at his trial were under the impression that the former pupil, aged 11 when the crime was said to have been committed in 1989, was the sole complainant.

The handling of Paul Sheppard’s departure from Ampleforth College was not the school’s first attempt to cover up a potential scandal involving the alleged sexual abuse of children

Two years earlier Father Dominic Milroy, the headmaster, had proved equally reluctant to contact police when a monk confessed to sexually abusing a Junior House pupil.

The head removed Father Gregory Carroll but hushed it up by sending him to work at a “mission parish” in Workington, Cumbria. There, he sexually abused a nine-year-old altar boy. In 2005, aged 66, Carroll was jailed for four years for indecent assault and gross indecency…

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/litany-of-offences-2gjh65c3f

Gregory Peter Carroll, Ampleforth

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Ampleforth

Monk ‘who ran sex club involving young boys’ at country’s top Catholic School ‘remained in his job for eight years after allegations were first made’

Apr 5 2017

  • Father Jeremy Sierla allegedly ran ‘sex club’ for boys at Ampleforth College
  • He remained at Catholic school for eight years after allegations first made
  • Police told he would make pupils perform sex acts in their pyjamas 
  • Investigation began in 2004 but no charges were ever brought against him 

Detectives spoke to more than a dozen young men who attended the school’s Junior House between 1990 and 1993 when Father Jeremy was housemaster.

Some recalled the monk whipping boys’ bottoms with his habit, encouraging the pupils to tie him up, showering naked with them and putting his hands under their duvets, the Times reported.

Photos and video clips – none indecent – of Ampleforth pupils were found on Father Jeremy’s computer, including one of a 12-year-old boy holding a rose in his mouth.

Father Sierla, 59, lived and worked at £30,000-a-year college, pictured, until 2012, despite accusations first being made against him eight years previously

The investigation was triggered when the same boy, in his early 20s by 2004, made allegations to police about abuse he claimed Father Jeremy had subjected him to.

The monk was not charged after prosecutors ruled there was insufficient evidence against him, and the CPS said the case file was destroyed years ago, the Times reported.

Father Jeremy continued to work in the abbey shop from 2004 to 2012 and posed for photographs to promote Ampleforth’s own brand Abbey Beer.

A music teacher, Dara de Cogan, who joined Ampleforth in 2004 was jailed last week for sexually abusing a female student during violin lessons.

An police investigation was launched into his conduct at the Yorkshire Catholic school, pictured, in 2004 but no charges were ever brought against him

A school spokesman said that Father Jeremy’s continued presence at Ampleforth was approved at a meeting of safeguarding professionals in 2004 and that his case was reviewed again in 2007 by an independent safeguarding commission.

It took a further five years before the Department for Education (DfE)told Ampleforth he should not be allowed on school grounds. 

TheDfE said that it was unable to discuss individual cases but stressed it was ‘paramount that children are protected at school and that there are robust safeguards in place’.

It added: ‘Where schools fail to meet standards, we will not hesitate to take action.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4384898/Monk-ran-sex-club-young-boys-Catholic-School.html


Click To Enlarge

GENE SIMMONS‘ Rock School” has Master Simmons setting up court at one of the UK’s top independent boarding schools, Christ’s Hospital in West Sussex, south of London. The children who attend the 450-year-old school wear Tudor uniforms, march into the lunch hall accompanied by full brass band and know nothing about rock music. So, in just six weeks Gene must transform a class of classically trained 13-year-old musicians into little rock gods.

http://kissasylum.com/cgi-bin/fullStory.cgi?archive=200507&story=20050714-01School.htm#20050714-01School

  • ch-shami

Shami Chakrabarti Visits CH

The final speaker of the Lent term’s Visiting Speaker Programme for senior pupils was Shami Chakrabarti. Ms Chakrabarti is the Director of the human rights campaign group Liberty. The title of the talk was ‘On Liberty’.

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Freemason and president of Christ’s Hospital School – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a cousin of the Queen, is also a member of the Queen’s Club where Jaz worked.

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2015 During October the staff and pupils of Christ’s Hospital were honoured to welcome HRH The Duke of Gloucester to the School for the official opening of CH’s truly magnificent new Language and Resource Centre (LARC).

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Feb. 26, 2012 – Christ’s Hospital Celebrates Quartercentenary. 800 boys of Christ’s Hospital, Hersham wearing their famous Bluecoats and yellow stockings and led their own bands, marched from Cannon Street Station to St. Paul’s Cathedral on 19th May to attend a Thanksgiving Service marking the School’s 400th Centenary. The service was attended by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. after the service the children were entertained to tea by the Corporation of London in the Halls of various City Companies including the Tallow Chandlers in their Hall at Dowgate Hill, Cannon Street.

 Headmasters: Oswald Flecker

 

HLO Flecker was clearly very much a member of the establishment (not only because he is one of the few persons I ever saw wearing spats). This explains why he was selected to be a member of a Royal Commission to investigate education in the British West Indies in 1948 or 9 (I think). He may well have merited this appointment because of his knowledge of education and his intellectual powers. Another explanation may be because he was a very senior member of the Freemasons, a Grand Deacon...He was thus number 5 or 6 in the hierarchy. The big chief at that time was the Duke of Gloucester, the President of CH.
Headmaster Oswald Flecker was an important freemason and that led me to think of further possible relevance to CH, for in the CHOBA’s monthly calendar of events, there are frequent notices of masonic meetings. So apparently masonic connections with CH are still strong.

Jaz Karim worked at two places affiliated with Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

President of Christ’s Hospital School – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a cousin of the Queen, is also a member of the Queen’s Club where Jaz worked.



Freemason Duke of Gloucester with Jimmy Savile – The Child Farm Safety Competition 1977

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^ Looks like Savile is wearing his “eyeball rings”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2672395/Glass-eye-stolen-corpse-Savile-necklace-sold-charity-auction-75-wore-final-Top-Pops-groped-child.html

Royal progress: Britain’s changing monarchy – Page 158

Daniel Counihan – 1977 – ‎Snippet view

There was Mr Jimmy Savile, of the ‘pops’. … the Queen Mother; the Prince of Wales; Princess Anne; Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and Duchess of Kent; Princess Alexandra and her husband; and Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

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Prince William of Gloucester with his parents, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and brother, Prince Richard, in 1962

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Duke of Gloucester’s father, Prince Henry – patron of abuse-ridden Fairbridge Society

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Current Duke Of Gloucester  – Richard –

for over thirty-two years was President of the Institute of Advanced Motorist

the Institute of Advanced Motorist. Current vice presidents of the IAM include former BBC Crimewatch presenter and safety campaigner Nick Ross and former transport minister Sir Peter Bottomley MP.

Sir Jimmy Savile is a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sir-jimmy-savile-fixes-crash-329267


Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beuleigh

Lord Montague of Beuleigh

A company that Laud was a director at –  Posmark Ltd.The company registration number was 02872928.

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Yet again, Laud had a very wealthy and influential partner in the company: Baron Montagu is a British Conservative politician well known in Britain for founding the National Motor Museum, as well as for a pivotal cause célèbre in British gay history, his 1954 conviction and imprisonment for homosexual sex, a charge he denied.”

On two occasions Lord Montagu was charged and committed for trial at Winchester Assizes, firstly in 1953 for allegedly taking sexual advantage of a 14-year-old Boy Scout at his beach hut on the Solent, a charge he has always denied.[1] When prosecutors failed to achieve a conviction, in what Lord Montagu has characterised as a “witch hunt” to secure a high-profile conviction, he was arrested again in 1954 and charged with performing “gross offences”.

Quite what Laud and Montagu got up to in their business venture is a complete and utter mystery

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Lord Montagu of Beaulieu

Lord Montagu’s name appears alongside child sexual abuse as he was prosecuted in 1953 for having underage sex with a 14-year-old Boy Scout at his beach hut on the Solent, a charge he has always denied and of which he was acquitted [48]. He maintains he was innocent but he states Kenneth Hume was behaving mildly indecently towards another scout. (Kenneth Hume was Shirley Basseys husband. Basseys father incidentally was also a child abuser). Montagu also claims that many years later, a scout who was there told him that accusations arose from the scouts out boasting each other about their experience and the scoutmaster overhearing [p135].

So, Montagu’s story is that he was not a child abuser, but he does mention that he turned a blind eye to his friend, Hume who was.

Montagu was arrested again in 1954 and charged with performing “gross offences” with an RAF serviceman during a weekend party at the same beach hut. He was imprisoned for 12 months and he blamed a deep vein of antihomosexual prejudice, from Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard, and Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir John Nott-Bower who was convinced of a homosexual conspiracy. Sir John swore he would tear the cover of all filth spots [p98]. In Oct 1953 the Sydney Daily Telegraph reported there was a Scotland Yard plan to smash homosexuality.

Within weeks of his incarceration there was a debate in House of Commons led by Bob Boothby and Leo Abse (both now believed to be child abusers) which led to a committee of Inquiry led by John Wolfendon, called “The Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution” [p124].

As well as the infamous beach hut and land on the Solent, Lord Montagu owns Beaulieu River – banks, bed and all [46 p6]. He also owns a maritime museum at Buckler’s Hard, with a nearby marina, and the river harbours over 200 moored yachts [46 p9] [47]. Lord Montagu is the Commodore of the Beaulieu River Sailing Club [46 p20]. He was also vice commodore of the House of Lords Sailing Club [p203].

Montagu mentions a trip on his motor yacht once with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones to the Isle of Wight, [p275] when Jones was trying to lay low after drugs charges. He also mentions taking Roy Orbison out on the Solent on his yacht. Montagu’s daughter [p103] used his motor launch Cygnet in June 1997 for her wedding. Montagu no doubt had access to many boats and his aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Forster also owned a motor yacht Mirama [p20]. Diana Dors mentions going on his boat in her memoirs []

Montagu was an extremely well connected man, having been to Eton, and being in the House of Lords. He had links to paedophile Lord Mountbatten [p132] who asked him to go to Broadlands to meet members of his committee set up to investigate the security of prisons. Montagu was famous for his fancy dress balls, and Mountbatten was a guest at his first in 1963 to mark the opening of the Maritime Museum [p278] and again at his Great Gatsby Ball in 1974 to cebrate Montagus second marriage. Montagu also remembers other parties including one at Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes. He was also known to Margaret Thatcher [p229], and friends with Long Longford [p 134] [p207]

Ralph Bonner Pink MP also a child abuser, owned an ex lifeboat called Ambler kept in Emsworth Harbour and was a member of Emsworth Sailing club [31] [32]. (An odd incident happened, which I mention in passing, at Emsworth Sailing Club in 2014 in which a retired naval captain drove his car at the club and set it alight and was charged with arson [33] )

 

In England Bonner Pink MP took his boat on the Beaulieu River and to the Montagu Estate, as well as to Portsmouth Harbour. When his daughter Jannella was young they went for two weeks each summer to Bembridge Harbour on the Isle of Wight except when they went to France. In France they went to Honfleur and Barfleur, in Normandy and visited Bayeaux [32].

Bonner Pink knew Edward Heath and Peter Prosser, child abuser who also went to Haut de la Garenne as well as of course as Heath and Savile [32]

https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/boats-and-child-abuse/

Christ’s Hospital School Founders Day Dinner 2016 – held at Mountbatten Room, RAC Club Pall Mall St. James’s

http://www.choba.org.uk/event/founders-day-dinner/


Teenagers expelled for sex on a desk at Prince Charles’ old school

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3592017/Teenagers-expelled-sex-desk-Prince-Charles-old-school.html

Death of Jeremiah Duggan

10 November 1980 – 27 March 2003) was a British student in Paris who died during a visit to Wiesbaden, Germany, after being struck by several cars on a dual carriageway. The circumstances of his death became a matter of dispute because at the time he died Duggan was attending a youth “cadre” school organized by the LaRouche movement, an international network led by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche.

Duggan attended Fitzjohns Primary School in Hampstead, Quainton School for Boys, and won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital school in Sussex as a boarder

A British coroner rejected a suicide verdict in 2003 after hearing the London Metropolitan Police describe the LaRouche movement as a political cult. Duggan telephoned his mother, Erica Duggan, 50 minutes before he died, apparently distressed about his involvement in it.[2][3][4][5]

LaRouche was particularly critical of Britain and of the Tavistock Institute in London, a psychotherapy and social-sciences charity that the movement associated with British intelligence.

In 1999 a LaRouche publication said Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was threatening to assassinate LaRouche, probably with backing from the royal household.

Duggan’s family came to believe that this worldview affected the movement’s perception of Duggan, when the conference participants learned that he was a British Jew who, as a child, had attended the Tavistock Clinic for counselling when his parents divorced.
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Christ’s Hospital School Scandal

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  • A peep into the Blue Coat School!!!!!!!!!’, 1815. Showing a pig in military uniform (General Sir Eyre Coote) standing on its hind legs and being birched by three Christ’s Hospital boys. A woman is standing at the doorway with Sir William Curtis and Alderman Matthew Wood. Coote was dismissed from the army in scandalous circumstances after he was caught by the school nurse at the Christ’s Hospital School flogging pupils and then being flogged by them for money.
  • Scandal and death

    Sir Eyre was removed from the service on the 21 May 1816 because of the scandal he caused in the Christ’s Hospital school for boys.[2] On 25 November 1815 he entered the school and offered some boys money for an opportunity to flog them. After that he asked them to flog him and gave them money. He was caught by the school nurse, and charged with indecent conduct before the Lord Mayor of London. He was acquitted after giving £1000 to the school: after that there was a military inquiry in April 1816 which stripped him of his rank and honours.[3][4] He was appointed GCB 1815 and stripped of it 1816.

  • In his autobiography the American General and Secretary of State Colin Powell claims direct descent from Coote’s identically named nephew Eyre Coote while the latter was serving as Governor of Jamaica

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Alumni

Ampleforth alumni – Lord Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, and Andrew Parker Bowles, the former husband of the Duchess of Cornwall.

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Lord Fellowes and Queen Elizabeth

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  • George Haliburton HUME (pictured above) attended Ampleforth College from 1936 to 1941. Thereafter, at the age of eighteen, he entered the novitiate of the Benedictine monastery at Ampleforth Abbeybefore being ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1945, when he adopted the monastic name Basil.

Hume Death/Ampleforth/Picture Stock Photo

A monk at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire walks past a portrait of the late Cardinal Basil Hume who used to be the Abbot there.

Basil HUME returned to Ampleforth College to teach religious education, history, French and German. He served as Head of the school’s Department of Modern Languages before becoming the Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey in 1963, in which position he remained until, in 1976, he was appointed Archbishop of Westminster by Pope Paul VI.

1963-1976 was the peak period of the SAVILE/JACONELLI partnership.

Controversies

Hume was accused of ‘hushing up’ a suspected sexual abuse scandal at Ampleforth College by not calling in the police when he received a complaint from parents in 1975 about Father Piers Grant-Ferris, the son of a Tory peer at Gilling Castle, formerly a prep school for Ampleforth.

In 2005, Grant-Ferris admitted 20 incidents of child abuse. This was not an isolated incident and involved other monks and lay members. The Yorkshire Post reported in 2005; “Pupils at a leading Roman Catholic school suffered decades of abuse from at least six paedophiles following a decision by former Abbot Basil Hume not to call in police at the beginning of the scandal.”[16]

In 1984, Cardinal Hume nominated Jimmy Savile as a member of the Athenaeum, a gentlemen’s club in London’s Pall Mall. Following the posthumous revelation of Savile’s repeated sexual abuse of minors, members of the club have criticised Hume’s nomination of him for causing embarrassment to the club.[17]

HUME’s nomination of SAVILE to membership of the Athenaeum was seconded by another close confrère of SAVILE, paedophile, Cardinal Keith O’BRIEN, who, in March 2015, was stripped of his privileges by the Pope following his exposure as a sexual offender.

 SAVILE, HUME and the Athenaeum:

“It has also emerged that the members of the Athenaeum were horrified when Jimmy Savile was elected, on the grounds that the tracksuit wearing DJ ‘would not be a natural habitué of a club that has counted Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Palmerston and Lord Curzon as members’. The only reason they didn’t veto him was because he was nominated by Cardinal Basil Hume, the Archbishop of Westminster, and Hume would have had to step down if his nominee was blackballed.”

To suggest that Basil HUME went ‘out on a limb’ for Jimmy SAVILE would be a monumental understatement.

We know that they had at least one ‘interest’ in common – and they had it in common with SAVILE’s closest co-offender, Peter JACONELLI.

Like SAVILE and JACONELLI, HUME was a Freemason, of high degree, and with infinite loyalty to fellow brothers.

Basil HUME died on 17th June 1999, two weeks after receiving the Order of Merit.

In the light of the on-going Ampleforth revelations, Basil HUME’s relationship with Jimmy SAVILE merits the closest scrutiny.

And what about any relationship between Basil HUME and Peter JACONELLI?

Are we to believe that that Abbott Basil HUME, Athenaeum patron of one of the two most prolific predatory paedophiles of our times – both of them Catholic, both of them Freemasons, both of them perverts who offended together as well as separately – knew nothing of SAVILE’s co-offender and alleged sexual partner, Peter JACONELLI, the Roman Catholic Freemason?

nyenquirer.uk/savile-jacon/

David Lowe, 61, took advantage of boys aged eight to 13 who were studying at the Benedictine-run prestigious Catholic boarding school and at Westminster Cathedral Choir School where he was a housemaster.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11774502.Former_North_Yorkshire_teacher_jailed_for_ten_years_for_sexually_abusing_pupils/

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Jimmy Savile photographed in the library at Fort Augustus Catholic school

Sexual predator Jimmy Savile was regular visitor to Catholic school at centre of abuse scandal

FORMER BBC presenter was frequently invited to Fort Augustus Abbey by Benedictine Order monks.

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Disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, a good friend of Savile’s, was also a regular visitor at the school.

The revelations of Savile’s visits to the school came as it emerged that many more pupils have stepped forward to claim they, too, were victims of monk teachers.

Savile spent much of his time in the Highlands even before buying a cottage in Glencoe in 1998, which was just over an hour’s drive from Fort Augustus.

Fort Augustus was used as a “dumping ground” for problem clergy who had confessed to abusing children.

O’Brien, who was forced to leave Scotland earlier this year after being forced to admit to inappropriate sexual behaviour, was guest of honour at the school’s old boys’ dinner last year.

The pair met when O’Brien was priest at St Patrick’s Church in Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, in 1971.

Savile was a regular visitor because his mother Agnes was friends with O’Brien’s colleague, Fr Denis O’Connell.

Five men claimed on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

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Fury at sex abuse inquiry snub: Ex pupils ‘devastated’ by bombshell U-turn

May 15 2017

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VICTIMS who claim they suffered horrific sexual abuse at a Scots school have been snubbed by an official inquiry – despite being backed by the PM who said they helped set it up.

When she was Home Secretary, Theresa May wrote to a former pupil of Fort Augustus Abbey school to thank him for his “invaluable” help setting up the English Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2015.

But the evidence of former Scottish pupils like him who attended that infamous boarding school is now unlikely to be heard at the powerful inquiry in London.

Last week, Fort Augustus Abbey was left off the list of schools to be examined by the IICSA later this year.

The snub has prompted fury among those who claim their lives were ruined by what they experienced at the boarding school.

Last night one victim told The Sunday Post: “This has come out of the blue. We’ve been waiting a long time for the inquiry.

“The effect is devastating on our mental health. There have been a number of suicides by ex-pupils because of the abuse.”

He said former pupils are very upset at the bombshell development, especially given Prime Minister May’s earlier support.

In 2015, Theresa May wrote to one of Fort Augustus’s ex-pupils following a number of meetings between the pair where they discussed the alleged abuse he suffered.

Having set up the inquiry less than two weeks previously, she wrote: “With your help we have now established an inquiry to get to the truth about what child sexual abuse occurred in institutions across the UK and why nothing was done.”

But those words now seem empty, after lawyers for Fort Augustus Abbey pupils were contacted last week to reveal the shock evidence reversal.

Fort Augustus Abbey – which was run by an order of English monks – is at the centre of allegations of physical and sexual abuse spanning 30 years.

The exclusive Highlands school shut for good in 1993 but horrific allegations about the way pupils were treated emerged in 2013.

Last year, the English Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse announced those claims would be examined – despite the school being in Scotland.

There is a Scottish inquiry set up to probe similar issues north of the border called the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

But campaigners say the English inquiry has been given more clout to take action, which is why ex-pupils from Fort Augustus lobbied to be included in it.

A spokeswoman for the IICSA said the institutions to be examined were still not set in stone – despite the new proposals.

She said: “No decisions of any sort have been made about the matters to be considered at the hearing.”

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/fury-at-sex-abuse-inquiry-snub/?utm_source=twitter

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Ex-headmaster of Aberdeen school,

Father Francis Davidson,

at centre of sexual abuse allegations resigns from university post

Father Francis Davidson has been accused of failing to act on reports during time at Fort Augustus Abbey School in Highlands.

15 AUG 2013

A FORMER headmaster of a boarding school at the centre of sexual abuse allegations has resigned from a role at Oxford University.

Father Francis Davidson has been accused of failing to act on reports during his time at the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands in the 1970s.

He has quit as monastic superior of the Benedictine college St Benet’s Hall, where he was responsible for the welfare of student monks at the university.

Alleged victims who attended the Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Fort Augustus Abbey
FORT AUGUSTUS ABBEY (Photo: Peter Jolly)

Police are investigating the allegations.

One former pupil told the BBC that he told Fr Davidson personally of the abuse but the monks remained in the Abbey. Fr Davidson is the only surviving headmaster of the school.

In a statement issued to the BBC, Fr Davidson offered his sympathies to former pupils for any historic abuse and said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of the allegations.

He added: “I do not recall them being reported to me during my time as headmaster of Fort Augustus Abbey School.

“As investigations into matters at Fort Augustus Abbey School and Carlekemp Priory School are ongoing, I have stepped aside from my role as religious superior at St. Benet’s Hall.”

Earlier this month, one of Scotland’s most senior Catholics apologised to former pupils amid the claims.

Hugh Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, said: “It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former Abbey School a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.”

Anne Houston, chief executive of charity CHILDREN 1ST, said: “The focus here must always remain on what’s best for those who were abused in the past and what will make a positive difference to them; that and helping protect children now and in future by taking steps to minimise the risk of this ever happening again.

“It is crucial that the church fully and openly co-operates with the ongoing police investigation and passes on any and all relevant information it may have relating to any allegations of abuse at these schools.”

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Fr Denis Chrysostom Alexander

Fort Augustus School

Monk accused of Fort Augustus Abbey abuse arrested in Sydney

23 January 2017

A former Catholic monk accused of child abuse at a Scottish school has been arrested in Australia.

Father Denis “Chrysostom” Alexander was one of several monks accused of abusing boys at the former Fort Augustus Abbey boarding school in the Highlands.

The BBC has learned he has been remanded in custody in Sydney pending his extradition back to Scotland to face trial.

The Crown Office here said it would not comment on legal matters elsewhere.

Father Alexander has always denied the allegations.

In 2013, he was confronted by BBC Scotland in Sydney as part of a documentary which prompted a major police investigation.

Now, three and a half years after that programme, that investigation has taken a significant turn with the former Benedictine monk’s arrest.

He will face a further hearing on Wednesday at the local court in New South Wales, where it will emerge if he will oppose the extradition or not. He will also be entitled to apply for bail.

One of Father Alexander’s accusers, Hugh Kennedy, has previously spoken of his frustration at the length of time it has taken the Scottish authorities to request the extradition of the former monk who is now 80.

One other former Fort Augustus monk is due to face trial in Scotland soon for a series assaults, whilst a further seven cases remain under consideration by the Crown Office in Scotland.

Fr Alexander was returned by the Catholic Church to Australia in 1979, after allegations of abuse were made by another Fort Augustus Abbey pupil, who the BBC has also spoken to.

No report to the police was made, and no warnings were provided about his alleged offending behaviour, to the Church in Australia where Fr Alexander continued as a priest for a further 20 years or more.

He was stripped of his priestly faculties in 2013 after the BBC programme.

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Fort Augustus Abbey monk appears at extradition hearing in Sydney

  • 13 February 2017

A former Catholic monk accused of child abuse at a Scottish school has appeared in court in Australia facing extradition.

Father Denis “Chrysostom” Alexander was one of several monks accused of abusing boys at the former Fort Augustus Abbey boarding school in the Highlands.

He has always denied the allegations.

He appeared via a video link at the hearing in Sydney and was refused bail. The full extradition case is set to be heard in May.

In 2013, Father Alexander was confronted by BBC Scotland in Australia as part of a documentary into alleged abuse by monks at the school, which prompted a major police investigation.

The BBC’s correspondent in Sydney, Phil Mercer, attended the latest court hearing.

He said: “His lawyer argued that he should be released given his age, a lack of mobility and various medical conditions.

“It was discussed in court that Father Alexander has diabetes and hypertension and a history of falls, and the lawyer said that the former priest was not a flight risk and that his incarceration was punitive.

“A lawyer for the British government said that being held in custody would not harm Father Alexander’s health, and he also suggested that the former monk might be a flight risk, that he could be driven to a Benedictine monastery somewhere in Australia to evades the authority.”

After hearing from both sides, the magistrate decided Father Alexander should remain in custody until the full extradition hearing in three months time.

The former monk’s lawyer said he would fight extradition to Scotland.

Father Alexander was returned by the Catholic Church to Australia in 1979 after allegations of abuse were made by a Fort Augustus Abbey pupil, and continued working as a priest for a further 20 years or more.

He was stripped of his priestly faculties in 2013 after the BBC programme.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38951512

Monk accused of Scottish child abuse loses extradition appeal

7 Nov 2019

Fr Denis “Chrysostom” Alexander, 83, had challenged a decision by the Australian Government to surrender him to face trial in Scotland.

But the federal court has now dismissed his case against the attorney general.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50328634


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Father Abbot Mark Dilworth in his beloved cloisters at Fort Augustus Abbey with Cardinal  Keith O’Brien

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Open Letter to Aiglon Board of Governors_2

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Gordonstoun sexual abuse files missing

FILES on a police investigation into child abuse at Gordonstoun school have gone missing or been destroyed, it emerged.

Jun 28, 2015

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Gordonstoun alumni

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Charles, Prince of Wales

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

Peter Phillips

Zara Phillips


Bishop Bell


Bid to extradite priest from Canada over Fort Augustus abuse claims

21 March 2017

Fr Robert MacKenzie moved to Canada after teaching at the Fort Augustus Abbey School in Inverness-shire

Moves are under way to extradite a retired priest from Canada to Scotland in connection with child abuse claims.

The Crown Office has been granted a petition warrant for the arrest of Father Robert MacKenzie, who lives in Cupar, Saskatchewan.

Fr MacKenzie, 84, taught at the former Fort Augustus Abbey School before moving to Canada in 1988.

Papers are now being prepared in the Crown Office to submit an extradition request to the Canadian authorities.

A Crown Office statement said: “The procurator fiscal received a report concerning a now 84-year-old male in connection with alleged historical offences.

“No court dates have been scheduled at this time.”

Court process

The petition warrant is the first stage in the process in which prosecutors are now preparing an extradition request.

This can take several weeks, and once received by the Canadian authorities the court process there could last more than a year.

 Fort Augustus Abbey school closed down in the 1990s

The move at the Crown Office came after the launch of a police inquiry in 2013, following a BBC Scotland investigation of alleged systematic physical and sexual abuse at Fort Augustus.

A number of former pupils made detailed allegations to the BBC.

Father MacKenzie was the priest at St Patrick’s, Cupar, in the Canadian diocese of Regina, Saskatchewan.

On remand

Although he retired in 2014, he still lives in the town.

Extradition proceedings are under way in the case of another former Fort Augustus priest, Fr Denis Alexander, who lives in Australia.

He is currently on remand while the extradition process continues, although his lawyers are attempting to have him freed because of what they say is his failing health.

Another former priest, Fr Benedict Seed is due to stand trial at Inverness Sheriff Court in May, charged with eight counts of physical abuse at Fort Augustus.

The Crown Office has still to decide what action to take in a further six cases.

The Fort Augustus School, which was run by the Benedictine Order of monks, closed in 1993.

Allegations of sexual abuse there will be examined by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales (IICSA).

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39339978

Benedictines ‘can’t accept’ blame for child abuse at school Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
24 June 2017
Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. Picture: Nick Mailer.
Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse
The head of a religious order has expressed “sorrow” that monks abused boys at Fort Augustus Abbey School but said his congregation cannot be held responsible for what happened. Dom Richard Yeo, abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation, said he believed the allegations of former residents who say they were abused at the fee-paying Highland boarding school, which closed in 1993. But the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was shown a submission from the congregation which said it had “no remit or authority” to acknowledge or accept abuse. The inquiry heard allegations have been made against six monks who taught at either Fort Augustus, on the banks of Loch Ness, or Carlekemp Priory School in East Lothian.
Dom Yeo said one monk, who was later accused of sexual abuse, was moved from the school but there was no evidence police had been informed. He said his predecessors as abbot president had responsibility for ensuring that Fort Augustus was properly run, but he said that was not the same as having responsibility for its running. Asked if he acknowledged abuse had taken place, Dom Yeo said: “Several people have come to me and informed me that they were abused and I have told them that I believe them and that I was sorry about it. That’s my position.” He said he had agreed to take part in a 2013 TV documentary – in which a number of allegations were made – on the condition he was able to “say sorry for the abuse that happened”. But when asked who could now be held accountable for the abuse, he said: “Since the monastery has closed, I don’t see how anybody can be.” He added: “The great problem with all this is that Fort Augustus has closed down and that must mean that any redress that survivors of abuse have is going to be limited.”
Former pupils of Fort Augustus have made allegations of physical abuse, sexual assault and rape. Prosecutors are currently attempting to extradite Father Denis “Chrysostom” Alexander after he was arrested in Australia. Fr Alexander was among those accused of abuse in the 2013 TV documentary. He denies the allegations. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, before Lady Smith, is looking at the abuse of children in care dating back decades. Yesterday it also heard from Vivienne Dickenson of Crossreach, the Church of Scotland’s social care council. Ms Dickenson said the Church was “deeply sorry” for children abused while in its care. The inquiry heard there had been a small number of historical allegations relating to the use of excessive force at Ballikinrain residential school near Stirling and two historical complaints of sexual abuse at Geilsland School, Beith, which closed in 2015.

In 2013, Ian Samson was jailed for sexual abuse that included attacks on children at the Church’s Lord and Lady Polwarth Children’s Home in Edinburgh, which closed in 1982. Ms Dickenson told the inquiry Samson had been given a written warning after concerns were raised by another member of staff in 1980. Commenting on the Edinburgh children’s home, she said: “We fully accept that the systems and processes did not protect children in our care at that time.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/benedictines-can-t-accept-blame-for-child-abuse-at-school-1-4485191


MISC

Teacher faces obscenity case

23 Mar 2000

A music teacher has been accused of sending obscene mail.

The teacher at Christ’s Hospital School, Horsham, faces two charges under the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 and ten charges of sending abusive or indecent articles through the post. He will also be in court on a drink driving charge.

The school confirmed Peter Brownlie had stopped teaching while he awaited the outcome of court proceedings but refused to say whether or not he had been suspended. Brownlie is due to appear at Horsham Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to answer the charges.

The harassment charges against Brownlie say that between March 7 and 15 he made 15 nuisance telephone calls to a number in Southwater, near Horsham, and between March 1998 and March of this year he sent obscene or grossly offensive letters at intervals to an undisclosed address.

Brownlie, 38, has been at the school for seven years. A father of two, he is the school’s head of brass, and lives on site at King Edward Close.

In a statement the school said: “Christ’s Hospital is aware that a male teacher is assisting police with an investigation into allegations of harassment made by a woman. The allegations do not involve any pupil or other member of staff and do not arise from the teacher’s work.

“The headmaster will decide if any action by the school is necessary when further information on the investigation is available.”

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The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will take evidence at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on July 14, 2015 in London, England. The inquiry will ‘investigate whether public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales’.

 

Claims of VIP paedophile ring at Scots boarding school –  QVS Queen Victoria School – aired at abuse inquiry

Apr 30 2017

SENSATIONAL claims about a VIP paedophile ring at a prestigious Scots boarding school are to be aired at Holyrood’s child abuse inquiry.

QVS is at the centre of extraordinary allegations

The evidence will include claims that Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton was connected to the network, which is also said to have included leading members of the Scottish establishment.Queen Victoria School (QVS), which is funded by the Ministry of Defence and has Prince Philip as its patron, is at the centre of the extraordinary allegations.It was not included in the first round of boarding schools and other establishments identified by the inquiry team, sparking fears of a cover-up.However, a former teacher at the Dunblane school who has spent decades attempting to unmask the abusers has now been invited to tell his story.
Glenn Harrison was a housemaster at QVS when he began to suspect that a shadowy cabal of powerful individuals was preying on the pupils.However, when he tried to raise the alarm in 1991 the police responded by breaking down the door to his flat, seizing his personal papers and hauling him in to be interviewed.Yesterday, Mr Harrison said: “After almost 27 years of being ignored, someone is listening and wants to know what really happened to me at QVS. I am pleased and eager to share the experience and emphasise the need for authorities to listen to children when they complain as well as teachers and carers especially in institutions. I hope my experience will help to create a more caring and safer environment for young people in the future.”After leaving QVS, Mr Harrison and his family relocated to Orkney and he made numerous attempts to have his allegations investigated over the years.

The case was finally referred to the Scottish Government’s historical child abuse inquiry in 2015Earlier this month, it also emerged that Police Scotland detectives are investigating at least two cases of historical abuse linked to QVS. One of them involves former teacher Ben Philip, who died after falling from a ladder at the school in 1993.Children of Scottish service personnel are eligible to attend QVS, which is now mixed but was an all-boys school at the time of the allegations. It is governed by a Board of Her Majesty’s Commissioners appointed by the Queen, the Scottish Secretary and the Defence Secretary.Fife campaigner Tom Minogue, a long-time supporter of Mr Harrison, has also been invited to give evidence by the inquiry’s witness support team. He said: “I never thought we’d get to this point because of the cast of characters involved with QVS, starting with the Duke of Edinburgh as patron and running down through some of the most powerful people in the land as Her Majesty’s Commissioners.“The great and the good don’t want us to speak about any of this, starting with the fact that Thomas Hamilton was running about the place.”
Mr Harrison’s allegations centre on a group of men who would allegedly take pupils away for weekends and return them “distressed but flush with cash”.Five years after the claims were first reported to the police, 16 children and one teacher were shot at Dunblane Primary School by evil Hamilton. To his horror, Mr Harrison recognised the fiend as a frequent visitor to QVS.In evidence submitted to the inquiry, Mr Harrison states: “When I enquired about him (as well as other unknown visitors), I was told they were ‘friends of Queen Victoria School’; I have never to this day been able to find out who these ’friends’ were.”The Cullen Inquiry later heard that Hamilton took youth clubs camping in the QVS grounds, that he arranged for an acquaintance to get a summer job at the school and that he took another man shooting at the school’s firing range.Mr Minogue said the implications of this evidence had never been properly explored and added: “These references quite clearly corroborate Glenn’s story and show that Her Majesty’s Commissioners either didn’t know what was going on at the school they were charged with governing, or they have been less than truthful.”An MoD spokeswoman said: “We take any allegations of this nature very seriously and any claims of historical abuse involving Queen Victoria School have been passed to the police. We will fully co-operate with their inquiries.”http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/798285/Dunblane-killer-Thomas-Hamilton-paedophile-ring-QVS

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Dunblane, Queen Victoria School, Spec Society (Elite Scottish Freemasons)


wp-1491116480135.jpgApril 2 2017,

There were fresh calls last night to widen the Scottish government’s child abuse inquiry after a former pupil of a military boarding school in Dunblane claimed he was abused by a teacher.

It has emerged police launched an investigation after a victim broke decades of silence to reveal his abuse at the hands of a housemaster at Queen Victoria School (QVS) in the 1970s.

The man, now in his fifties, was told by detectives last month that his abuser, who died 24 years ago, would have faced being charged if he had still been alive. The former pupil is believed to be the first victim of alleged sexual abuse at the school known to have come forward. It reignites concerns first raised in 1991 by a QVS teacher who feared boys were at risk. A police probe failed to find evidence of wrongdoing at the time.

Separately, detectives have looked into claims that a woman was abused as a child in the 1990s by her father who had links to QVS.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), launched in 2015, has named dozens of establishments under investigation, but QVS is not one of them.

The school is funded by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and counts Prince Philip as its patron.

Janine Rennie, from the charity Wellbeing Scotland, said: “If the inquiry is going to be effective, it cannot exclude an establishment where there is evidence of abuse.”

The former QVS pupil told police last year that he was abused by a teacher, Ben Phillips, while in primary school. Speaking to The Sunday Times, he recalled Phillips “fondling” his genitals while he was in bed in the dormitory and putting his hand down his pants while he was standing at Phillips’ desk during class. The man only told his father of the abuse in 2013.

“I think it’s my duty to mention these facts,” the man said. “[The police] took my case very seriously. It was only [last month] that an officer gave me a final update. If certain teachers had still been alive then there would be enough evidence with what they had accumulated from myself and other ex-pupils to make a case.

“I thought going to the police was the right thing to do, as there may be old boys out there who have suffered over the years.”

The Sunday Times understands that the MoD and QVS co-operated fully with the investigation into Phillips, who lived and worked at the school. He died in 1993, aged 46, when he fell from a ladder while hanging Christmas decorations.

We can also reveal that police investigated claims by a woman that she was abused as a girl in Dunblane in the 1990s. A local resident first raised concerns over the girl’s welfare in 1991, and in 2015 was asked by detectives to provide a fresh statement. The resident, who spoke to this paper last week, said the woman’s father had close connections with QVS and that the case was quietly dropped.

An MoD spokeswoman said: “We take any allegations of this nature very seriously and any claims of historical abuse involving Queen Victoria School have been passed to the police. We will fully co-operate with their inquiries.”

A spokesman for the SCAI said it will announce further investigations in due course that “may include other boarding schools”.

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “There is no ongoing investigation in connection with Queen Victoria School. Police Scotland will not discuss further details of any reports made.”

Meanwhile, police in Kent have launched a review after a parent of an ex-pupil at The Duke of York’s Royal Military School complained that the force failed to robustly investigate a historical allegation.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/fresh-sex-abuse-claims-hit-scots-military-school-b8bz3wvfv  https://archive.is/RqS6c

https://spidercatweb.blog/2017/04/02/breaking-fresh-sex-abuse-claims-hit-scots-military-school-qvs/

Earlier:

Jul 5, 2015

Top Scots school in abuse claims

CLAIMS of a powerful paedophile ring operating at a top Scottish military school with links to the Royal Family have been passed to the Holyrood inquiry into historical child abuse.

The allegations centre on Queen Victoria School in Dunblane, which has Prince Philip as its patron and is funded by the Ministry of Defence for the children of Scots service personnel.Last night, the Ministry of Defence said the claims were being “investigated via the appropriate agencies”.Glenn Harrison, a former housemaster at the boarding school, first raised the alarm in 1991 when he wrote to parents to warn them that their children were at risk.He also reported his concerns to the former Central Scotland Police but says he was told the school was covered by the Official Secrets Act and therefore out of their jurisdiction.His claims centred on a supposed cabal of individuals known as the ‘Friends of QVS’, which was said to include high profile members of Scotland’s political and legal circles.They apparently enjoyed unfettered access to the school and would often take boys away for the weekend, with the pupils returning “distressed but flush with cash”.

Mr Harrison later said: “They had to take their kilts and clean underwear and I was not given a contact address. What may have gone on at these parties was secret but some boys were very disturbed.“I became disturbed, too, by screams in the dorm at night, empty beds, rituals in dark places and used, warm, filled condoms hurriedly abandoned. There was fear throughout every age group and the teachers knew about it.”In one instance, Mr Harrison and his wife refused to sit alongside Prince Andrew at a school dinner “in protest at the many unheard voices and suffering of young boys”.The police responded to his complaint by breaking down the door to his flat and removing many of his personal papers, while he was escorted from the school premises and interviewed by detectives.Mr Harrison also reported his concerns to social services, the NSPCC and the Scotland Office, whose inspectors found evidence of bullying but said other allegations had been “exaggerated”.He moved to Shetland, where he enjoyed a distinguished teaching career, and his new MP Jim Wallace, now Baron Wallace of Tankerness, agreed to raise the matter at Westminster.
In 1993,Hansard recorded a written response from QVS headmaster Julian Hankinson to say that police had “concluded there was no cause for further action on their part”.The story took a twist with the Dunblane massacre carried out by Thomas Hamilton, whose links to Queen Victoria School were established at the Cullen Inquiry.In November 1996, Mr Harrison wrote to The Shetland Times to say: “I believe that, had my allegations in 1991 been properly investigated, there is a strong possibility that Hamilton would have been discovered.”His claims still went largely ignored until being picked up by Brian ‘Robbie the Pict’ Robertson, who led the campaign against Skye Bridge tolls, and justice campaigner Tom Minogue.
Mr Minogue, a retired businessman from Dunfermline, made a formal complaint to Central Scotland Police in November 2003.He said: “Glenn Harrison reported all this before anybody had any suspicions about Thomas Hamilton, never mind Nicholas Fairbairn or Robert Henderson.“With each passing revelation, it adds more credence to what he alleged in 1991.“The stories he told me were absolutely harrowing. I don’t know whether boys were abused from that school but I do know Glenn Harrison was absolutely convinced they were, and he is a sincere, genuine and serious man.”He added the so-called ‘Friends of QVS’ put forward by Mr Harrison represented a “who’s who of the Scottish TV news” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The former housemaster has now retired and left Scotland, telling friends he had “had enough” of being thwarted in his attempts to secure justice.However, a number of individuals who may have been abused at Queen Victoria School have come forward in recent years and the matter has been referred to Susan O’Brien QC, who will chair the Scottish Government inquiry.The school, which began admitting girls in 1996, is open to children of those who have served or are serving in the Army, Navy or RAF.It has been rocked by a number of underage sex and drinking scandals over the years, while two teachers were investigated by the police in 2005 over allegations involving two female pupils.A fiscal later ruled no action could be taken as a new Holyrood law designed to protect children in such circumstances had not been in force at the time.It is the latest boarding school to be hit by historic abuse allegations, after Merchiston Castle School, Fort Augustus Abbey School and Gordonstoun.Alan Draper, of the In Care Abuse Survivors group, urged Ms O’Brien QC to have the “courage” to investigate claims involving high-profile Scottish establishment figures, “even members of her own profession”.He added: “It is a question of how far she is going to be able to deal with it without any interference.”An MoD spokeswoman said: “These cases of historic abuse are being dealt with and investigated via the appropriate agencies. In advance of the completion of any investigations or the finalisation of any inquiry, it would be inappropriate to comment on any aspect of the allegations until a conclusion is reached. The MoD is co-operating fully with the investigations.”Detective Chief Inspector Elaine Galbraith, of the Police Scotland Public Protection Unit, said there were no current investigations into any persons connected with Queen Victoria School but any previous reports would be assessed and reviewed if necessary.She added they were committed to the investigation of all reports of sexual crime to bring justice for victims of sexual abuse, regardless of the passage of time and said: “I would encourage anyone who may have been a victim, regardless of when that was, to come forward, safe in the knowledge they will be taken seriously and will always be dealt with professionally.”A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it will be for the inquiry to consider all submitted evidence.http://www.express.co.uk/scotland/588918/Top-Scotland-school-abuse-claims

LORD Cullen, who presided over the Dunblane inquiry, was “taken aback” when he was asked to declare whether he was a Freemason, newly released papers have revealed. Documents relating to the school massacre, released after a 100-year secrecy rule was lifted, show how police investigated claims of a Masonic conspiracy. But they appear to give little support to lingering suspicions of a cover-up involving police, politicians and other senior public figures. Among the 3,000 letters and reports uncovered is correspondence between a member of public and Lord Cullen’s office regarding suggestions that the gunman, Thomas Hamilton, and senior police, who were aware of concerns over summer camps and clubs he ran, were Masons. In one letter, the member of public, whose name has been concealed, wrote to Lord Cullen’s office after a date for a preliminary inquiry hearing was set. The letter, dated 11 April 1996 – less than a month after Hamilton killed 16 pupils and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School – said: “It is in the public interest that Lord Cullen be asked if he is a Freemason, given the widely held view by the public that Thomas Hamilton’s Masonic affiliation was probably the reason that the Ombudsman overturned an earlier decision by Central Regional Council in 1983 to prevent Hamilton from running youth clubs, and that his Masonic affiliation probably facilitated his application for a gun licence.” The letter-writer said anyone involved in the inquiry who turned out to be a Freemason should be forced to resign – and that included Lord Cullen. The letter went on: “It is far too important to allow the Masonic implication to be whitewashed by furtive operations in the Freemasons, intent only in ‘diverting a discourse’ – a Masonic ruse – from the involvement of Freemasons and Freemasonry.” A handwritten note, apparently written by court staff after consulting with Lord Cullen, is marked “verbal response” and dated 18 April. It says “taken aback by the letter” and “not a Freemason, never has been”. Hamilton wrote scores of letters to police, council officials, MPs and even the Queen, claiming he had been the victim of a grand conspiracy to prevent him running boys’ clubs. In a statement given to Central Scotland Police in June 1996, an unnamed Grand Lodge of Scotland leader said he was aware of press speculation that Hamilton was a Mason, but said he did not think this was true as it “would have come to light immediately after the Dunblane incident”.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/question-on-masonic-links-left-dunblane-inquiry-chief-stunned-1-1099013

QVS, Dunblane, VIPaedo, Cover-Up

https://spidercatweb.wordpress.com/tag/dunblane/?iframe=true&preview=true/feed/

Abuse inquiry judge urged to investigate Dunblane boarding school

March 5 2017

The judge at the helm of an historic child abuse review in Scotland is being urged to investigate a top private school with links to the royal family.

Glenn Harrison, a former housemaster at Dunblane’s Queen Victoria School (QVS), has raised fresh concern that pupils were sexually abused by a paedophile ring during the 1980s and 1990s. He first blew the whistle 26 years ago but has written to Lady Anne Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish child abuse inquiry, making a new case for its


 

COURT: Music professor at Ampleforth College has appeared in court

Music professor at Ampleforth School in court on sex offence charges

Jan 20 2017

A LEADING Roman Catholic school has been rocked by abuse allegations after a music professor appeared in court accused of sex offences against a girl more than 30 years his junior.

Irish-born classical musician and composer Dara De Cogan, 57, was appointed performing arts professor at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire, in 2004.

The gifted violinist is charged with 12 counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

The court heard the victim was a girl aged 16 and 17 at the time of the alleged offences between December 2007 and December 2009.

Dublin-born De Cogan, became leader of the Irish Youth Orchestra in 1978 and represented his country in the European Community Youth Orchestra.

In 1982, he joined the Hallé Orchestra and has played in folk music ensembles and has worked widely in the recording industry.

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Dara de Cogan outside court

His court appearance came just weeks after it was confirmed Ampleforth is to be included in one of three public hearings carried out in the national child sexual abuse inquiry.
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Sunday, 15 December 2013

Handel’s Messiah..

The Messiah saw Ampleforth Abbey packed to the rafters. Locals,non locals and parents of preforming children all packed in on a cold winter’s night.
The Orchestra was led by Dara de Cogan and the conductor was Ian Little.
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Dara De Cogan performs Benjamin Britten
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Music professor at Ampleforth School in court on sex offence charges

The Ampleforth Chamber Ensemble Dara de Cogan (violin) who is Head of Strings

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Dara de Cogan, a founder-member of European Community Youth Orchestra

https://www.facebook.com/events/758595804242567/

Dublin-born De Cogan, became leader of the Irish Youth Orchestra in 1978 and represented his country in the European Community Youth Orchestra.

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European Community Youth Orchestra – that was Edward Heath’s province too

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Heath made a special point of conducting orchestras involving young musicians. While still prime minister, he conducted the Academy of the BBC at the 50th anniversary concert in the series for children founded by Sir Robert Mayer. Later, it was through Heath’s help that the European Community Youth Orchestra was set up. He became its president, and conducted it on summer tours in 1978, 1979 and 1980.

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Heath the musician: Rehearsing the 107 strong European Community Youth Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall

A vanished file and troubling claims about Heath and young musicians

The ensemble in question was the European Community Youth Orchestra, and it was about to embark on its inaugural tour of EEC capitals. It was to be a flagship for pan-European cultural co-operation.

The 135 musicians, some of whom were as young as 14, were drawn from the then nine member nations. Heath, an enthusiastic amateur musician who had led the United Kingdom into the European Community five years before, was the orchestra’s founding president. He would also be its guest conductor for that tour and several tours to come.

In an intriguing development, the Mail learned this week that a file relating to Sir Edward and the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange group is one of those missing from official Government records.

It is among 114 missing files concerning child abuse identified by an independent review of how allegations were handled by the Home Office.

The title of the missing document, ‘Edward Heath MP [redacted] RE: PIE’, refers to the activities of the Paedophile Information Exchange.

Investigators discovered that the file disappeared more than 25 years ago after being moved to a Westminster record centre. They concluded that there was no evidence of any orchestrated attempts by officials over three decades to cover up child abuse.

But the unexpected absence of the file raises questions about the exact nature of the connection between Heath and the PIE group.

Further new allegations of sexual abuse and possible official cover-up concerning Sir Edward have come to light. They centre on his relationship with the European Community Youth Orchestra.

A retired senior police officer, who served with several southern forces including Wiltshire, told the Mail that there were ‘always rumours’ about Heath, the former MP for Bexley.

The policeman — a widely respected officer with a distinguished career — asked that due to the sensitivities of the Heath investigations, he remain anonymous. He told us that the rumours did not come with any specific evidence against the former PM.

But he went on: ‘The exception were several allegations made against him in his role with the European Youth Orchestra. I understand there were credible claims that Heath indecently assaulted young people on tours to the Continent which he was leading.

‘These tours took place in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

‘It was never clear how old the victims were, or exactly what happened, and what was alleged was not at the top end of the scale of criminality.

‘Why these were never investigated I cannot say. I suspect it is because they took place overseas and the victims were from other countries.’

Seven police forces are investigating after it was claimed that the early 1990s trial of brothel madam Ling-Ling was dropped when she threatened to claim in court that rent boys had been supplied to the ex-prime minister

Ted Heath would have known Dara De Cogan through the European Community Youth Orchestra.

And Heath links to another Ampleforth paedophile – Piers Grant-Ferris – his father Lord Harvington was good friends with Heath and Thatcher.

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Music professor at Ampleforth School in court on sex offence charges

A LEADING Roman Catholic school has been rocked by abuse allegations after a music professor appeared in court accused of sex offences against a girl more than 30 years his junior.

Irish-born classical musician and composer Dara De Cogan, 57, was appointed performing arts professor at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire, in 2004.

The gifted violinist is charged with 12 counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

The court heard the victim was a girl aged 16 and 17 at the time of the alleged offences between December 2007 and December 2009.

Dublin-born De Cogan, became leader of the Irish Youth Orchestra in 1978 and represented his country in the European Community Youth Orchestra.

In 1982, he joined the Hallé Orchestra and has played in folk music ensembles and has worked widely in the recording industry.

His court appearance came just weeks after it was confirmed Ampleforth is to be included in one of three public hearings carried out in the national child sexual abuse inquiry.
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President:- Dara de Cogan

 

 

Dara de Cogan

became leader of the Irish Youth Orchestra in 1978 and represented his country in the European Community Youth Orchestra. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music with Jaraslav Vanecek. In 1982 he joined the Hallé Orchestra and became Principal Second Violin in 1986. Alongside his orchestral work, Dara runs his own Irish band, Delginis, and he was the String Coach and Artistic Director for the Hebridean Youth Project Summer Music School.

Dara was appointed Head of Strings at Ampleforth College in 2004 and continues coaching various youth orchestras, as well as private individual tuition.

We are an enthusiastic amateur orchestra based in Hazel Grove, Stockport.

Our President is Dara de Cogan, a distinguished violinist and teacher, and our Musical Director and Conductor is Mehrdad Bakhshayesh.

We give three concerts a year in the Methodist Church in Wesley Street (Hazel Grove), and these are always very well attended.

We rehearse each Thursday evening from 7:30 till 10:00 pm in the Sunday School attached to the Methodist Church in Wesley Street, Hazel Grove.

 http://hazelgroveorchestra.co.uk/Dara.htm

 


Piers Grant-Ferris/Robert Grant Grant-Ferris/Heath /Ampleforth/Jersey


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Piers Grant-FerrisHis secret past as a serial abuser of young boys at Ampleforth.

He was an officer in the Irish Guards before becoming a novice monk in the Benedictine Order in 1955.

 

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His late father, Lord harvington, Robert Grant Grant-Ferris, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons during Ted Heath’s Government and member of a prominent English Roman Catholic family – retired to Jersey

 

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Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and her husband were among the guests on Robert Grant Grant-Ferris, Baron Harvington‘s  yacht.

Born Robert Grant Ferris, he was educated at Douai School (csa scandal there too)

He was Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee during the years of Edward Heath’s government, having never before held any office but that of a Parliamentary Private Secretary in wartime.

He served in most of the major theatres of war, including France, Egypt, India and Malta. Of his Maltese service he had particularly fond memories, and he was above all proud when – amid a string of foreign decorations – he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta in 1949.

…deeply involved in hospital work…

president of the National Sheepbreeders’ Association in 1956; he also served no less than three terms as president of the Southdown Sheep Society.

Robert Grant Ferris (Robert Grant Grant-Ferris), politician: born 30 December 1907; called to the Bar, Inner Temple 1937; MP (Conservative) for North St Pancras 1937-45, for Nantwich 1955-74; Air Efficiency Award 1942; Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Town and Country Planning (W.S. Morrison) 1944-45; President, Southdown Sheep Society of England 1950-52, 1959-60, 1973; President, National Sheep Breeders’ Association 1956-58; a Member of the Speaker’s Panel of Chairmen, House of Commons 1962-70; chairman, Board of Management, Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth 1963-70; Kt 1969; President, Smithfield Club 1970; Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker, House of Commons 1970-74; PC 1971; created 1974 Baron Harvington; married 1930 Florence Brennan de Vine (deceased; one son, one daughter); died Jersey 30 December 1996.

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Robert Grant Ferris- Inland Waterways Association

Robert Grant Ferris was a noted pilot in the Royal Air Force, and one time Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons.  He was one of IWA’s most influential and hard-working friends in Parliament.

Robert Grant Ferris MP was knighted in 1969, and in 1974 was created a life peer as Lord Harvington of Nantwich in Cheshire. He was elected an IWA Vice-President in 1966 and was chairman of the original All-party Waterways Committee.

https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/history/waterways_personalities/robert_grant_ferris

Early this week, Heath, who died in 2005, was formally attached to the wide-ranging allegations of historic paedophile abuse and cover-up by members of the British political establishment

Life in Jersey revolved around hunting, golf, motor yachting, and farming. Lord Harvington was also a noted breeder of pedigree sheep and former president of the National Sheep Breeders Association. Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and her husband were among the guests on his yacht.

Son Piers Grant-Ferris –

He served at Our Lady and St Michael’s Church in Workington, Cumbria, between 1978 and 1989, when he was chaplain to St Joseph’s RC School, before returning to Ampleforth Abbey where he was much sought-after to lead retreats.
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Dec 1976: Lord Winstanley exhorts Antony Grey “pursue Mrs Whitehouse to the end of the road, if not further!”

For greater context to documents below please see John Cockburn’s blog post on Mary Whitehouse versus PIE and the Home Office discussing Chapter 13 of Mary Whitehouse’s 1982 autobiography, “A Most Dangerous Woman” and her fight to bring in new legislation to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse. Note in particular Cardinal Basil Hulme’s nomination of Savile to The Athenaeum [Sir Jimmy Savile causes anguish at The Athenaeum, Telegraph 10 October 2012] and his involvement in the 1975 cover-up of abuse by the only son of former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons during Ted Heath’s government Lord Harvington. Father Piers Grant-Ferris of Ampleforth College, Scarborough:

“HE was a highly respected monk and teacher and a celebrated mountaineer, the only son of leading Tory peer and public figure Lord Harvington, a personal friend of Margaret Thatcher.

A former officer in the Irish Guards, Piers Grant-Ferris seemed to represent all the values of his late father, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons during Ted Heath’s Government and member of a prominent English Roman Catholic family.

grant-ferris-andes-article

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But the younger Grant-Ferris, who once boasted that only his faith had saved him when he became lost in the Andes without food, had desires which were anything but godly.”[Shame of an officer and a gentleman Yorkshire Evening Post, 18 November 2005]

In November 1976 Mary Whitehouse accused Albany Trust of supporting pedophiles in their campaign to normalise sexual attraction and activity between men and children, indirectly funded by the government via the Trust.

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A Bedales settlement over an alleged assault by a teacher included a confidentiality provision

Bedales gave references to ‘sexual abuse’ teacher

Feb 19 2017

A top boarding school attended by royals and children of the famous has issued a public apology for allowing a teacher suspected of sex abuse and investigated by the police to continue working.

Bedales, which charges fees of more than £33,000 a year, told The Sunday Times this weekend that it apologised “unreservedly” for the way it had handled complaints of abuse and misconduct against a teacher at its prep school, Dunhurst, in the 1980s, including providing a reference allowing him to go on and work elsewhere.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bedales-gave-references-to-sexual-abuse-teacher-dk2lc9w08

An school. How many others have recycled a member of staff who has an unhealthy interest in the young?

Celeb boarding school Bedales gave sex abuse suspect a teaching reference

Allegations against the unidentified teacher at the £33,000 a year school surfaced in the 1980s.

A famous boarding school whose alumni include Sophie Dahl and Lily Allen has apologised for providing a former teacher with an employment reference despite them being suspected of sexual abuse.

Bedales also apologised for allowing the teacher in question to continue working at the Hampshire school in the immediate aftermath of the allegations and not contacting the police straight away.

Allegations against the unidentified teacher at the £33,000 ($41,000) a year school surfaced in the 1980s. But the person was allowed to continue working at Dunhurst, the prep school managed by Bedales.

Police were not contacted and the school later provided a reference for the teacher so they could work in other schools, despite the accusation.

In a statement handed to The Sunday Times, the school said: “Specifically, the school was remiss on three counts: failure to dismiss the teacher immediately; failure to notify the authorities at the time; and providing references for the teacher based on what was known in 1987.

“We confirm that in 1987 as a result of complaints of serious misconduct made by parents against a teacher at Bedales Prep School, Dunhurst, the teacher was forced to resign.

“Almost eight years later at the end of 1994, specific sexual abuse allegations going back to 1985 were made against the same teacher. The school co-operated fully with the subsequent police investigation but the teacher was not charged.

“Separately, a civil action relating to the same case was subsequently brought in 1998 and a settlement was reached in 2002.”

The headmaster at the time of the alleged abuse was Euan MacAlpine, who told The Sunday Times: “I am out of it now. I have no idea how the whole thing ended. You know perfectly well that these allegations — and they were allegations — are always complex.”

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/celeb-boarding-school-bedales-gave-sex-abuse-suspect-teaching-reference-1607389

Bedales supports Royal launch of charity sale

April 30th 2013

Members of the Bedales community were involved in Save the Children’s 50th anniversary Big Sale last week, which was attended by the Princess Royal. In addition to donating items for sale, students used their keen eye for fashion to select ensembles and model outfits as a preview of the sale, and Block 3 art students helped by designing the invitation. The School’s catering manager, Dave Greenman, was present in recognition of the support he has given in loaning school crockery and cutlery to the branch

http://www.bedales.org.uk/news/bedales-supports-royal-launch-charity-sale

Why I loathed doing time at Britain’s most liberal school

I’m not surprised by revelations yesterday about Bedales pupils having under-age sex, shoplifting and being expelled. Institutions do not change.

In the modern age, it has attracted the offspring of wealthy, but free-spirited society types. My peers included the actor Daniel Day-Lewis — son of a poet laureate — theatre director Peter Hall’s children Chris and Jenny, a number of young aristocrats and the children of Princess Margaret.

Royal connection: Anthony Armstrong-Jones and Princess Margaret take Lord Linley and Lady Sarah to school at Bedales. On the right is the Headmaster, Mr. C. P. Nobes

My parents were persuaded, back in 1972, by an equerry to the Queen that Bedales would be just the ticket for me. The informal ethos, mixing of the sexes and emphasis on the arts sounded ideal to two idealistic liberals working for the United Nations abroad.

But it was like Harry Potter’s boarding school Hogwarts — on Viagra. Sex went on all the time. Of course, if they were discovered in flagrante, pupils were instantly expelled — but that didn’t stop anyone. Nor was sex necessarily consensual.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2017094/Bedales-I-loathed-doing-time-UKs-liberal-school.html

When matron seduced me

10 Feb 2002

It was the mid 1960s. I was 14-going-on-15 and a pupil at Bedales, the co-educational boarding school in Hampshire, where Princess Margaret sent her children. My seductress was 10 years my senior and, wait for it, the school nurse.

The following year, still at Bedales, I helped a 16-year-old girl in my class further her affair with one of the junior French masters. He had a bed-sitting-room in a house in the school grounds and, on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the girl and I would go together to the teacher’s room for extra study.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3572855/When-matron-seduced-me.html

 



19 March 2017

Britain’s most prestigious military school ‘bribed teacher’s daughter to provide information that led to the arrest of whistleblower’

Duke of York’s Royal Military School near Dover

Britain’s most prestigious military boarding school is facing damaging new claims that it covered up allegations of abuse against students.

The boarding school near Dover, which has enjoyed visits from Prince Harry and the British Army’s Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Nicholas Carter, is listed on police records as the location for 38 crime reports over the last two decades.

Of these, 12 were sexual offences and 11 were “child protection incidents”, according to police records obtained through freedom of information requests. At least five resulted in cautions, charges or warnings.  

But when the school’s then deputy child protection officer Tracy Austin and concerned parent Georgina Halford-Hall raised concerns about child safety, the primary concern of former headmaster Chris Russell appeared to be finding the source of the disclosures.  

Chris Russell with his ex-wife, the television presenter Jan Leeming

Chris Russell with his ex-wife, the television presenter Jan Leeming pictured in 2001

Rather than looking into her claims, police arrived at her cottage in the Somerset village of Gurney Slade in June 2014 and arrested her for handling stolen goods and a breach of the Data Protection Act.

“I was horrified,” she said. “I was trying to protect children from abuse, but the only people police were investigating were the people raising concerns.”

The mother-of-three, whose husband is a former chairman of the Wells Conservative Constituency Association, was cleared a year later when crown prosecutors offered no evidence, causing the case to collapse.

Ms Austin, who had resigned from her position as deputy child protection officer in protest at the way the school dealt with concerns about sexual abuse of a teenage girl, was also arrested and faced similar charges. She was later told no further action would be taken against her.

In correspondence from marked “confidential”, Mr Russell wrote to Col Clive Knightley, the MOD official responsible for safeguarding of military children, to tell him that “the mole has been identified and removed from the school”, referring to Ms Austin.  

Col Knightley, who is assistant director at the MOD’s Directorate for Children and Young People, thanked Mr Russell for his “very helpful” memo, adding that he is drafting a “short and concise” response from the Adjutant General – who was the then chairman of the school’s trustees.

The school was run by the MOD until 2010 when it became an academy, but it is still promoted by the Government as one of the “highly recommended” schools for children from military families, who are eligible for grants from the MOD to subsidise fees.

On Saturday The Telegraph exposed how the Ministry of Defence appeared to collude The Duke of York’s Royal Military School to stifle claims of bullying and abuse.

Kent Police launched a review into their alleged failure to investigate dozens of criminal allegations at the school, and at least one detective inspector has been disciplined.

Duke of York’s Royal Military School on September 28, 2015

The force has set up a dedicated team to review claims about the school, which is seen as a breeding ground for future army leaders and boasts His Royal Highness, The Duke of Kent, as a patron.
Prince Harry inspects the student guards during his visit to The

Now it has emerged that the police are probing allegations that the school – which has enjoyed visits from Prince Harry and the British Army’s Chief of the General Staff – even bribed a teacher’s daughter to provide information that led to the arrest of whistleblowers who sought to expose the alleged goings-on at the school.

A letter from Kent Professional Standards Department, seen by The Telegraph, details how the force is reviewing a complaint that officers “failed to investigate the report of bribery by the school in paying Ceri Austin to provide a statement”.

Ceri Austin’s mother Tracy had resigned from her positions as the school’s deputy child protection officer in protest at the way the school dealt with concerns about sexual abuse of a teenage girl.
“They wanted to turn a blind eye to it. At the time there was a spate of sleeper holds – where boys strangle each other until they faint”Former teacher

After allegedly being offered a sum of money, Ceri Austin gave a witness statement which led to the arrest of her mother and Georgina Halford-Hall, a concerned parent who had also tried to complain about alleged bullying and abuse at the school. Both were cleared a year later when crown prosecutors offered no evidence, causing the cases to collapse.

Kent Police are probing why the allegation of bribery was not properly investigated when it was first reported. They are reviewing a complaint about why it was downgraded to a “suspicious incident” when it was in fact a “matter of extreme importance and one which raised serious questions about the credibility of the evidence provided by school’s management and others in the investigation”.

Detective Chief Inspector Swan, who is overseeing the complaint said that allegations are “suitable for a proportionate investigation” which means that “the conduct alleged may if proven justify criminal/disciplinary proceedings”.

A spokesman for Duke of York’s Royal Military School said that the suggestion that anyone was bribed is a “complete fabrication”.

Former teachers, parents and students at the school, which is seen as a breeding ground for future army leaders, have told The Telegraph that when they tried to raise the alarm about the alleged abuse, the school moved to silence them.

Rachel Ward, who sent her two sons to the school, voiced concerns about the allegations practise of “chair-gating”, where boys were made to sit on a hard backed chair facing a wall for whole weekends at a time, only allowed to get up to use the toilet or go to a meal, as a punishment for misbehaviour.

Mrs Ward, a retail and marketing executive from Hampshire whose husband was a Warrant Officers with the Royal Engineers, claims that that she was warned by an intermediary that her husband’s military career would be over if she did not stop complaining.

“They are in charge of all those children, you would think they would have a nurturing instinct,” she said. “But they didn’t want anyone questioning their methods.

Former teachers have also told this newspaper about the “barbaric” punishment systems at the school, and claimed that they were told to stop recording incidents in the medical log book because the school wanted to “turn a blind eye” to the goings-on in the boys’ dormitories.

One former teacher told The Telegraph that he was shocked at the punishments doled out by teachers to younger boys, which he said he found “wholly inappropriate”.

He said: “There was a culture of really quite unpleasant behaviour from some members of staff.”

The former teacher recalled a particularly “murky” incident when a young boy being rushed to hospital after being consensually strangled by one of his peers during a game, and falling unconscious.

At hospital nurses found that his body was covered in bruising including being whipped with a belt.

The school carried out an internal review of the incident and found that the principal “made a number of errors of judgement in the execution of the school’s responsibilities toward [the boy].”

An Ofsted report noted that there had been a “serious bullying incident” in May 2011 which “uncovered wider concerns regarding the safeguarding practises at the school”.

Another former teacher alleges she and her colleagues were told by senior management to stop recording medical incidents.

“They wanted to turn a blind eye to it,” she said. “At the time there was a spate of sleeper holds – where boys strangle each other until they faint.”

Ofsted carried out an emergency inspection in February 2013 “following concerns about the care of boarders at the school”.

A subsequent Ofsted report published in July 2013, rating its provision of care as “good”.

The school received a favourable report following another emergency inspection last month.

A spokesman for DOYRMS said the school would co-operate with any police investigation.

The spokesman said the punishments described “simply did not happen”, adding that such claims have been “fully investigated” by Ofsted whose inspectors exonerated the school.

It said Ofsted had also investigated claims about the handling of a sex abuse complaint and the school had been exonerated.

An MOD spokesman said the suggesting it had tried to stifle claims of abuse at the school is “completely untrue.”

“The MOD continues to take its responsibility for the Duke of York’s Royal Military School and the well-being of its pupils very seriously,” the spokesman said.

“The school has undergone a number of Ofsted inspections, as well as scrutiny by other the Education Funding Agency and Kent County Council, all of whom are satisfied the school is meeting or exceeding the standards required.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/19/britains-prestigious-military-school-bribed-teachers-daughter/

Former headmaster Chris Russell with his then wife Jan Leeming

Headmaster Chris Russell’s stepson:

“Mother dug him out of negative equity and bought him a Jaguar,” says Jonathan. “She spent a fortune renovating the house they bought, which she called Enchantress Cottage because the door was made out of wood from an old Royal Navy yacht with the same name.

“My mother is an incurable romantic, but Chris neglected her. He was all about image and status

It had all started so well. When one of Chris’s pupils at Astor School near Dover began a project on Zandra Rhodes, he remembered a newspaper article in which Jan had been singing the fashion designer’s praises. So he wrote to her.

Six months later, Jan replied. A correspondence ensued and they met in July, 1997.

Chris was a bachelor for 17 years. He’d forgotten what it was to have a wife.”

 

Chris Russell to retire as executive principal and Commandant of Duke of Yorks Royal Military School, Dover

10 December 2016 |

In recent years the school’s ceremonial parade has been inspected by Prince Harry, the Duke of Kent, and the British Army’s Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Nicholas Carter.

Mr Russell was a governor at the school before becoming its head. His early career included a commission in the Royal Army Education Corps.

Outside the classroom, Mr Russell played professional cricket for Kent and Surrey. He represented the Army and Combined Services, captaining two championship winning Army sides. The arts have also been important – he has produced 55 international musicals and initiated and run the National Students’ Art Exhibitions at London’s Mall Galleries, now in its 15th year.

This year, Mr Russell became President of the British Torch of Remembrance and led the visit to Belgium, involving major wreath laying ceremonies including at the Cenotaph, Dover, the Menin Gate, Flanders Fields and the Kings Day Parade in Brussels. 

He will still have contact with the school having been appointed as a Trustee of The Dukies’ Foundation.

The school’s new Principal is Mr Alex Foreman who will start in January 2017.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/principal-to-retire-from-military-117162/

Schools inspector Ofsted apologies over controversial visit to Astor College for the Arts

27 May 2015

It was revealed last week that the 988-pupil school was set to be rated inadequate following a visit from Ofsted inspectors.

But in a highly unusual step, Ofsted has now sent a letter to the school apologising for the “inconvenience” caused by its initial visit and revealed Astor will now be re-inspected.

after the story broke in the media, the school’s chief executive officer, Chris Russell, wrote a letter to parents and guardians.

He said: “I should like to inform you that the college is not in special measures.

“Ofsted have apologised for their shortcomings and the fact that their inspection was incomplete.

The school’s chief executive officer, Chris Russell, said a new team from Ofsted will re-inspect the school in the “near future.”

Dover’s Astor College for the Arts and Walmer Science College with Michael Gove MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Children.
Astor College
the arrival of Christopher J Russell as head teacher in 1988
http://www.kentlive.news/college-head-leaves-decades/story-11997533-detail/story.html

27/06/2017

A prestigious school rocked by child abuse allegations has contacted more than 3,000 former pupils in an effort to uncover historic offences.

Allegations of Gordonstoun pupils being abused first became public two years ago. A number of ex-pupils at its junior school, Aberlour House, claimed they were preyed on by teachers during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Since then, staff have been helping police with their investigation.

And now it has emerged the school has been in touch with thousands of former pupils to ask them to report any abuse they may have suffered while studying there.

Principal Lisa Kerr said it was important to “learn the lessons of the past” in order to ensure the abuse never happened again.

She said: “We have been incredibly proactive in contacting our alumni and saying ‘if you had a bad experience please come forward’.

“If things happened which were criminal, we want them reported to the police, and investigating officers have been very supportive.”

Gordonstoun – where several members of the Royal family have studied – is one of several independent schools in Scotland named by judge Lady Smith, who is conducting a national inquiry into historical abuse.

Writing in the most recent alumni magazine, the school’s chairwoman, Eve Poole, expressed her support for the Scottish abuse inquiry and included its contact details.

Historic sex abuse allegations were first made against the school on a private Facebook page set up by former students, and became public in 2015.

One student claimed she was raped as a 12-year-old on a school camping trip, while another claimed he was assaulted in his dormitory at Aberlour House in 1990 after getting injured in a rugby game.

Now school bosses say there are measures in place to ensure any evidence of bullying or abuse will be immediately detected.

MORE

But Ms Kerr said that its leaders needed to know about events of the past to ensure they were not repeated.

She added: “There is not an organisation in the country that could not put its hand on its heart and say things had happened in the past which they wish did not.

“That’s a matter for sadness and regret in society as a whole.

“What we are doing here is giving as much attention and care to people who did not have a happy time in the past as pupils in our care do today.

“For us, it’s not about trying to brush anything under the carpet, it is quite the opposite.

“We cannot give the kind of care we have here today if we try to pretend that the past did not happen, we have to be open about it.

“I am determined to do that, and I hope it will give people the confidence to come forward.”

Ms Kerr, who was appointed last year as Gordonstoun’s first female principal, said she is proud of the support and care given to students at the school today.

A computer system allows information to be shared about any pupil who may be showing signs of distress or “unusual behaviour”.

Each pupil is assigned a staff supervisor, a group leader, a child protection officer and student counsellor – a system that has been approved by the Care Inspectorate.

The school, founded in 1934, taught Prince Charles and brothers Andrew and Edward, along with other members of the royal family.

Former pupils also include Lossiemouth’s Olympic gold medal-winning rower Heather Stanning.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/moray/1275544/gordonstoun-contacts-3000-pupils-amid-child-abuse-claims/

PRESS & JOURNAL 26th June 2017

https://spidercatweb.blog/2017/06/27/plea-from-headteacher-to-3000-former-pupils-did-you-suffer-child-abuse-at-gordonstoun/

Misc

Lepra

CHARITY ORGANIZATION Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11, is Patron of the Charity and Sir Christian Bonington CBE, is President.
Vice Presidents are HRH The Duke of Gloucester GCVO , The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr G. F. Harris, MC OLM, Baroness E. Nicholson of Winterboume and  Mrs
N. K. Trenaman. The organisation of the Charity consists of a  Chairman, Board of Trustees, Hon. Treasurer and Secretary who
is the Director.

Army and Navy Club

CLUB PRESIDENT

 

Members

 1942 – 1974 Major-General HRH the Duke of Gloucester

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20140705/281994670590609

Kevin Spacey was given a private tour of Buckingham Palace by Prince Andrew – and he even sat on the THRONE

The Duke of York personally escorted the actor into the heart of the Palace, including areas that are strictly off-limits to most visitors

12th November 2017

Senior royal sources claimed pictures of Spacey were taken inside the Queen’s hallowed throne room.

It is Buck House’s centrepiece, decked out with glittering chandeliers and silk wallpaper.

Last night sources close to the Duke said he had “no recollection” of Spacey being let inside.

Royal experts described the July party — whose guests included Andrew’s daughter Eugenie, 27 — as “tawdry”.

And it revived questions about the Duke’s choice of friendships with the rich and famous.

Both Spacey, 58, and Andrew were pals of paedophile US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was jailed for trying to hire a 14-year-old girl as a prostitute.

Andrew, 57, quit as a UK trade envoy in 2011 after the friendship was revealed.

A royal source said: “Buckingham Palace is not a theme park to be used for private tours, it’s the heart of the  monarchy.

“The Duke’s decision to invite Spacey for a personal guided visit was not ideal then.

“Against the backdrop of the current allegations against Spacey, it looks even worse.”

Spacey was artistic director of London’s Old Vic theatre from 2004 to 2015 and became a darling of the British arts scene.

But last month Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp accused him of trying to seduce him at 14.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said last night: “The Palace is home to a number of members of the Royal Family who, from time to time, host guests in a private capacity.”

Spacey’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4894752/sleazy-kevin-spacey-was-given-a-private-tour-of-buckingham-palace-by-prince-andrew/

Vicount Ian Kerr CGC‏@IanKerr

 

Is that BBC DJ Fearne Cotton in the background ? Part of the BBC Billy Cotton dynasty ? Ex ‘girlfriend’ to the pop music paedophile Ian Watkins, currently serving 33 years ? Tut tut.

Image result for fearne cotton and ian watkins

Fearne Cotton – ex-boyfriend Ian Watkins pleads guilty to attempted rape on a baby

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2516831/Fearne-Cotton-seen-looking-subdued-ex-Ian-Watkins-pleads-guilty-attempted-baby-rape.html

Call for an inquiry into the cover-up of child abuse on the Groucho Club’s members forum

The Groucho club’s management has refused to issue a full and transparent account of the child abuse network, the rapes and the sexual haressment and assult of an employee.

Many of the celebrities now facing allegations, arrested or convicted in the past few years for sexual depravity such as the infant rapist, Ian Watkins, Weinstein, Spacey, Glitter, Saville, Harris, Hall, Max Clifford and others have frequented the Groucho Club. Harvey Weinstein is a lifetime member and was invited to write a chapter in a book about the Groucho Club where he talks about his membership.

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WALES: Ex-N.Wales Teacher Denies Sex Assaults; ‘Drunken Party Led to Offences against 4 Teen Boys’

Daily Post (Liverpool, England), October 24, 2008

Byline: By CARL BUTLER

A FORMER North Wales teacher has denied sexual assaults against four teen age boys after a drunken Christmas party.

Robert Charles Durrant – who is on trial in Dorset – spent four years at the Rydal Penrhos School in Colwyn Bay, before he moved to Ruthin School where he spent the next 16 years. He also taught on the Wirral.

Durrant, 60, who got married while teaching at Ruthin, is an English teacher at Milton Abbey School, Dorset, and has denied eight charges that are all alleged to have happened after a drunken Christ mas party at Milton Abbey School on December 6.

He faces six charges of sexually as saulting four teenage boys and two fur ther charges of battery that evening.

Dorchester Crown Court heard yester day Durrant targeted a ‘shy and isolated pupil’ after an alleged night-time assault in the Dorset private school.

Durrant, of Milton Abbas, Blandford, told jurors at Dorchester Crown Court he was very friendly with many of the boys he taught and he would often hug them and give them massages in a friendly way.

Earlier in the trial a schoolboy in his late teens said Durrant came into his room after midnight and touched his leg and tried to kiss him.

Another said Durrant had come into his room and kissed him on the arm and chest.

One boy said Durrant came into his room and put his hands down his trousers.

The final sexual assault was alleged by another boy in his late teens who said Durrant touched his backside twice that evening.

He denies any accusation he touched any of the boys in a sexual manner and said he has little recollection of that evening.

The jury heard after a schoolboy had burst into the room where Durrant was with another pupil, Durrant followed him angrily into his room.

He denies grabbing one boy around the neck but said he did shout at him and the boy reacted by threatening him that he would make up accusations about having his arm twisted by Durrant.

Durrant told the jury he had been drinking wine all evening and he and the other pupils were drunk.

Durrant said after sitting and talking to a schoolboy for a few hours he then hugged him and left and walked around the school stopping at different rooms.

He then admitted he drove two miles home to his house.

Prosecutor Robert Griffiths accused Durrant of targeting one of the school boys because he was a shy and isolated boy.

Mr Durrant replied he resented the accusation.

Mr Griffiths added: “I am going to suggest that over the years you may have got the odd grope off these boys but on that night you went far beyond that.”

When asked in a police interview about his sexuality Durrant said: “I am heterosexual with a hint of bisexual.”

Durrant clarified in court he had ex perimented sexually with other boys when he was at school himself.

The court heard Durrant has been a teacher since 1971 and had previously taught at the Calday Grange School in Wirral and the Christ’s Hospital School in Sussex before moving to Wales.

There he spent four years at the Rydal Penrhos School in Colwyn Bay before he moved to Ruthin School and spent the next 16 years there and got married.

Durrant then left this school, divorced his wife and moved to teach in Zimbab we and then Kuwait before taking the post at Milton Abbey School in 2003.

He now lives alone and is currently suspended from the school, the court heard.

The trial continues.

carlbutler@dailypost.co.uk

CAPTION(S):

Robert Durrant faces charges of sexual assault on four teenage boys

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-187660700/wales-ex-n-wales-teacher-denies-sex-assaults-drunken

Merchiston Castle School abuse

14 June 2015

Two men have been charged in connection with allegations of historical abuse at one of Scotland’s top independent schools.

Police Scotland confirmed they have been carrying out inquiries into the claims at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.

The allegations at the all-boys school date back to the 1960s.

Det Insp Morag Bruce said two men aged 62 and 69 will appear in court at a later date.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-33126115

Famous Scottish boarding schools named in child abuse inquiry

“The inquiry team is investigating boarding schools. Specifically, they are investigating Fettes Cottage, Gordonstoun, the former Keil School in Dumbarton, Loretto School, Merchiston Castle School and Morrison’s Academy, at the time it was a boarding school.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/31/famous-scottish-boarding-schools-named-child-abuse-inquiry/

Merchiston Castle School is delighted to welcome Mr Jonathan Anderson as Headmaster from August 2018.

Jonathan grew up in Ulster and read Geography at Queen’s Belfast where he developed his appetite for teaching and subsequently completed his teaching qualification in 1997. The same year, he joined Christ’s Hospital as a Geography Teacher before being promoted in 1998 to Assistant Housemaster, and in 2003 to Housemaster in a boys’ boarding house. After almost 14 years at Christ’s Hospital, he was appointed as Senior Deputy Head at Worksop College, Nottinghamshire, where he has spent the last seven years.

In tandem with head-hunters Odgers Berndtson, the Board of Governors conducted a rigorous selection process over the Autumn Term 2017, and Jonathan was the outstanding candidate within an excellent field of applicants.

On his appointment, the Chairman of Governors, Gareth Baird, said: “The Board of Governors is delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Jonathan Anderson who will succeed Mr Andrew Hunter as Headmaster of Merchiston Castle School after 20 years of stellar service. Jonathan comes to us from his position as Senior Deputy Head at Worksop College and emerged from a very strong field of candidates.

https://attain.news/announcements/new-headmaster-joins-merchiston-castle-school-edinburgh

In 1997 Jonathan Anderson joined Christ’s Hospital as a Geography Teacher before being promoted in 1998 to Assistant Housemaster, and in 2003 to Housemaster in a boys’ boarding house. After almost 14 years at Christ’s Hospital,

Dobbie, 66, of Albi in France and formerly of Hereford, was found guilty of 15 counts involving multiple offences against six boys and two girls as young as 12 between 1998 and 2001.


Page iii

Starehe School

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/Hitmans-role-at-Starehe/957860-1728958-8kwxu4/index.html

bluepeter

Image result for "Starehe School" + "princess anne"

What do the following people all have in common? …Kenyan nationalist Tom Mboya, Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton, Waruhiu Itote (‘General China’, a key leader of the Mau Mau rebellion), the singer Vera Lynn, Patrick Shaw (Kenya’s most notorious police officer), Desmond Tutu, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Jomo Kenyatta, Senator Robert Kennedy, Indira Ghandi, Mwai Kibaki, Muhammad Ali, Daniel arap Moi, Princess Anne, Pele and . . . err, naturally, Cliff Richard.

^ took it upon themselves to visit the school and, more often than not, help raise substantial funds to support its work.

Starehe was founded in 1959 by Geoffrey Griffin, a former Intelligence Officer of the British Army

Money has been forthcoming from the Dulverton Trust, Christian Aid, the Nuffield Foundation, Oxfam (there is a school ‘house’ named after its former director, H. Leslie Kirkley) and especially Save the Children. It was even the featured ‘Christmas appeal’ for Blue Peter in 1971, hence the Valerie Singleton connection, accompanied by Princess Anne. But this is not just a story about Britain’s post-imperial legacies. Money has also been forthcoming from the Dutch Bernard van Leer Foundation, the US Ford Foundation, the Danish Scouts (they paid for the school swimming pool), the West German Protestant Central Agency for Development as well as the governments of Denmark, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Commission itself.

Starehe has captured the imagination of Kenya’s elites, many of whom have sent their sons as fee-paying students.

It is an English public school sweltering in the African sun. It is a leading academic institution which offers a free education to the poor and disadvantaged.

Patrick Shaw

Patrick Shaw – Griffin’s deputy at Starehe – a sadistic, never married,  voluntary police reservist who frequently operated outside the law (was paid by Save the Children)

Patrick Shaw, by all accounts a sadistically ruthless if efficient police officer who was known to deal with Nairobi’s criminal gangs at the scene of the crime, serve as the administrator for the school for quarter of a century, first as a volunteer and then as salaried member of staff paid directly by the UK Save the Children Fund

Image result for Cliff Richard talking to the principal and founder of Starehe boy

Cliff Richard talking to the principal and founder of Starehe boys school Jeffrey Grifin. He was sponsored by the BBC ‘Blue Peter‘ children program

Britain’s pop singer, Cliff Richard engaged in deep conversation with the principal and founding director of Starehe Boys Centre, Geoffrey Griffin. Cliff Richard came to Kenya to lay a foundation stone for a new wing to be used as domitries. He was sponsored by the BBC ‘Blue Peter’ children program. Starehe Boy’s centre provided free education to orphans and bright poor children who could not afford school fees. A few of the children became ministers and important people in Kenyan society. In the Robin Hood spirit, the school was partly founded by the parents of the rich Kenyans who wanted the best quality education for their children and could afford to pay more.

Cliff Richard visited in 1963.

https://mbsbham.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/starehe-boys-school-decolonisation-development-and-western-philanthropy/

https://mohinderdhillon.com/cliff-richard-talking-to-the-principal-and-founder-of-starehe-boys-school-jeffrey-grifin-sponsored-by-bbc-blue-peter-program-2/

1 October 1998

Kenya: Princess Praises Starehe’s Work

The visit was much reported in the press and Griffin was able to exploit his official position to secure a meeting with Queen Elizabeth, the Lord Mayor of London and Cliff Richard (who would reciprocate by visiting the school the 20 following year, performing his songs for the boys in the school hall).

Visitors to Starehe:

Ken Loach, Princess Anne, King Constantine of Greece and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Indira Ghandi, Senator Robert Kennedy, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Ali, Pele, Vera Lynn, Cliff Richard and Valerie Singleton

Main donors to Starehe – Oxfam, Save the Children, and Christian Aid

Other donors include Shell/BP in Kenya, Sheikh Fazal Noordin Charitable Trust, the Child Welfare Society, the Kenya Welfare Trust,the African Welfare Society, the Roundtable No. 1 and the Welfare Trust of East Africa, Dulverton Trust,

 

Ford Foundation Donor

In 1962, Griffin took two Starehe boys to the UK. He used the trip to promote his private venture. He met with Queen Elizabeth, the Lord Mayor of London and Cliff Richard. Griffin’s visit consolidated his connections to to the headquarters of SCF (Save the Children). The charity was to become Starehe’s most important backer.

Dulverton Trust

Trustees

Christopher Wills* – Chairman

Richard Fitzalan Howard* – Vice Chairman & Chairman of Finance Committee

Tara Douglas-Home

The Lord Dulverton*

The Earl of Gowrie

The Lord Hemphill*

Dame Mary Richardson

Sir Malcolm Rifkind

Dr Catherine Wills*

The Hon. Robert Wills*

*Members of the Trust Finance Committee

https://www.dulverton.org/staff-and-trustees/

2011 Starehe Future Appeal – Malcom Rifkind

http://www.starehe.org/downloads/Report%20and%20Financial%20Statements%20Year%20Ended%2031%20March%202011.pdf

Starehe Future

Trustee Paul Whitehouse

Whitehouse

Paul Whitehouse was founder Chairman of Starehe UK from 1972 to April 2013. Paul worked in a voluntary capacity as Starehe’s Assistant Bursar from 1963-64, and has raised funds for the school ever since.

Paul retired as Chief Constable of Sussex in 2001, and is the former Chair of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.

Paul is also Chair of Governors of Sidcot School, Chair of The Tim Field Foundation and Treasurer of the Quakers and Business Group. He is a former Chair of Trustees at Anti-Slavery International.

Paul Chapple Whitehouse (born September 26, 1944) was, between 1993 and 2001, the Chief Constable of Sussex Police, resigning after criticism by the Home Secretary,[1] after a career starting in 1967. He was Chairman of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority from 2005-2011.[2]

In 1972 Whitehouse founded Starehe UK, a charity which supports boys and girls at the two Starehe schools in Kenya. He was the vice-chairman of Nacro until the end of 2007 when he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of Sidcot School. From November 2011 to February 2014 he was Chair of Trustees at Anti-Slavery International. He is a Director of Friends Trusts Limited, the denominational trust corporation of the Religious Society of Friends, and a Trustee of The Tim Field Foundation.

Starehe Future – Key Supporters

Shell
HRH The Princess Royal (Princess Anne)
The Daily Telegraph

Princess Anne first visited Starehe Boys’ Centre in 1971.

She returned to the Boys’ Centre in 1982 and again in 1998. And in 2004, The Princess Royal was Guest of Honour at the 45th Anniversary Founders’ Day at Starehe Boys’ Centre.

The Princess Royal fully supports the ethos and philosophy of Starehe

http://www.starehe.org/appeal/the_uk_charity.html

Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy met with Kenya's Tom Mboya in July 1960 to discuss funding for the second African student airlift.

Tom Mboya worked with then United States Senator John F. Kennedy

Image may contain: one or more people, people sitting, beard and indoor

Mboya and Nixon

TOM MBOYA , patron of Starehe, VISITS STAREHE BOYS’ CENTRE

https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/363676

Tom Mboya – was  patron of Starehe until 1969. He would meet with Senator Robert Kennedy

Barack Obama Sr -links to  Tom Mboya

Mboya worked with then United States Senator John F. Kennedy (later president of the US) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to create education opportunities for African students; this effort resulted in African Airlifts of the 1950s – 60s, which enabled African students to study at US colleges. Notable beneficiaries of this airlift were Wangari Maathai, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Barack Hussein Obama Sr.,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mboya

According to a letter on file in the Mboya papers at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, “most” of Obama Sr.’s early expenses in the United States were covered by an international literacy expert named Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, who had traveled widely in Kenya. Kirk wrote to Mboya in May 1962 to request additional funds to “sponsor Barack Obama for graduate study, preferably at Harvard.” She said she would “like to do more” to assist the young man but had two stepchildren ready for college.

Obama Sr. never quite lived up to his enormous potential. He achieved his dream of studying at Harvard after graduating from the University of Hawaii. He divorced Dunham in 1963 and married another woman.

Obama Sr returned to Kenya and became a close aide to Mboya, a fellow Luo tribesman, at the Ministry of Economic Development. According to his old “drinking buddy” Ochieng, he antagonized other officials with his “boasting,” was “excessively fond of Scotch” and ended up in poverty “without a job.” He got into frequent car accidents, one of which led to the amputation of both his legs. He was killed in another car accident, in 1982, at the age of 46.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html

Starehe – lots of big names linked to it over the years and big name child trafficking charidees, like Save the Children,  Oxfam….

Griffin:“I am not lucky with women” and his total aversion to dancing — perhaps he didn’t know how. But, we are told, he was an expert in “getting the best out of boys”. It is not clear why King’ala was so fixated on this question of Griffin’s bachelor-hood, or indeed, of his sexuality. Was he concerned that there was a risk Griffin condoned homosexuality or that he spread the practice at Starehe?

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/weekend/The-half-truths-biographers-tell-STAREHE-BOYS-GEOFFREY-GRIFFIN/1220-2363804-2ewq6kz/index.html

 

…how quick Griffin was to use corporal punishment. He could cane a whole class of 35 boys and shout “Next!” after caning the 35th.

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/Patrick-Shaw/957860-1728956-15af8br/index.html

Patrick Shaw, by all accounts a sadistically ruthless voluntary police reservist who frequently operated outside the law was known to deal with Nairobi’s criminal gangs at the scene of the crime, served as the administrator for the school for quarter of a century, first as a volunteer and then as salaried member of staff paid directly by the UK Save the Children Fund

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/Patrick-Shaw/957860-1728956-15af8br/index.html

...the question of Griffin’s sexuality. King’ala keeps coming back to it but he is too timid to pose the direct question: “Was Griffin gay?” Instead, King’ala circles it as a query about Griffin remaining unmarried. He dwells on Griffin’s refusal to discuss his personal life; on whispers that Griffin was ostracised by his family and on his glaring lack of friends. King’ala repeatedly brings up the name of John Beecher, the friend with whom Griffin introduced scouting at Nairobi School. Once Beecher — who was a year older … “I am not lucky with women” and his total aversion to dancing — perhaps he didn’t know how. But, we are told, he was an expert in “getting the best out of boys”. It is not clear why King’ala was so fixated on this question of Griffin’s bachelor-hood, or indeed, of his sexuality. Was he concerned that there was a risk Griffin condoned homosexuality or that he spread the practice at Starehe?

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/weekend/The-half-truths-biographers-tell-STAREHE-BOYS-GEOFFREY-GRIFFIN/1220-2363804-2ewq6kz/index.html

NYAIRO: Revealing uncomfortable truths about the Starehe … Events in Lamu County last week forced me to revisit The Autobiography of Geoffrey W. Griffin: Kenya’s Champion Beggar as narrated to Yusuf King’ala.

Paul Whitehouse, founder chairman of Starehe, was also involved in the Nicholas Gargani satanic case – small world, eh? Whitehouse is currently a trustee of Starehe Future

http://www.starehe.org/appeal/the_uk_charity.html

Paul Whitehouse was founder Chairman of Starehe UK from 1972 to April 2013. Paul worked in a voluntary capacity as Starehe’s Assistant Bursar from 1963-64, and has raised funds for the school ever since. Paul retired as Chief Constable of Sussex in 2001 Paul Whitehouse’s wife Elizabeth Dinsmore, was a respected solicitor. Her work with the Equal Opportunities Commission brought her into contact with Cherie Booth, with whom she struck up a close acquaintanceship. Paul Whitehouse had to resign from his Chief Constable role.. By promoting and giving pay rises to two officers who planned the operation that ended with the fatal shooting of a naked and unarmed man...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/paul-whitehouse-defiant-to-the-last-9169659.html

Nicholas Gargani was investigating Then Lewes District Council Leader Norman Bakers involvement Lewes District Council Corruption and crimes which covered attempted murder Fraud plus working with criminals The Hexagon Archive continued correspondence with the Chief Constable for Sussex; Paul Whitehouse and asked him outright if he knew of any Satanists in the force. Whilst he was prepared to answer some very limited questions regarding the case, he became extremely evasive over Barratt’s involvement in his Police Station, merely referring to her in her role as ‘clerk-typist’ and pointedly refused to state whether he personally knew of Satanists inside his force. Chief Constable Whitehouse did point out that it was not an offence to be a member of this type of organization, which further opened the floodgates of speculation. Nicholas Gargani was he Murdered by Sussex Police?

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/466315.html

Some of the names linked to sStarehe chool:

Malcolm Rifkind, Richard Attenborough, Tom Mboya

2011 Starehe Future Appeal – Malcom Rifkind

Richard Attenborough – tea to Griffin’s house in the presence of the visiting and legendary Richard Attenborough who wanted to meet the school’s top student of English and Literature.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/evewoman/article/2000127029/in-griffin-s-words-it-s-utter-nonsense 

Attenborough’s circle of friends includes… Richard Attenborough with Savile – close to the royal family

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28925029

Attenborough was friends with Mountbatten, Steve McQueen, Ronald Reagan and princess Diana, among others.

http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2014/08/richard-attenborough.html

Tom Mboya – was patron of Starehe until he was murdered – Barack Obama Sr was an aide to him Obama Sr. never quite lived up to his enormous potential. He achieved his dream of studying at Harvard after graduating from the University of Hawaii. He divorced Dunham in 1963 and married another woman. Obama Sr returned to Kenya and became a close aide to Mboya, a fellow Luo tribesman, at the Ministry of Economic Development.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html

Patron Tom Mboya is pictured w/Nixon, John & Robert Kennedy

Geoffrey Griffin, a former Intelligence Officer”

 “It is a known secret facts T mboya was a CIA agent Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge needed to change name and to undergo cosmetic face operations in the Republic of Apartheid South Africa whose boers(whites )used to run Kenya with Kenyatta and CIA/Mossad/Mi6/mi5 to this day.Where did Patrick Shaw came from/Patrick Shaw of Starehe boys centre and Mr Griffin USA) who used to run NYS/and Waruhio Etote (commonly known as (General china)”

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EXeabGU541wJ:nipate.com/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D60059+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1

More familiar names… John Robert Hall FSA FRSA (born 13 March 1949) is an English priest of the Church of England. He is the current Dean of Westminster and a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II. he officiated at the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton

 

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall was installed as the 38th Dean of Westminster on 2nd December 2006. The Dean is responsible for the spiritual life of the Abbey and its community. The Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, which means rather than being responsible to a bishop; the Dean is responsible to the Sovereign alone.

The Jubilee Time Capsule visited the Dean at the Abbey to record his memorable moments from the past 60 years. In the above entry the Dean remembers the period he spent teaching in 1968 at Starehe Boys’ Centre and School in Nairobi, Kenya. The school was set up 10 year previously by Dr Geoffrey William Griffin MSB OBE

https://jubileetimecapsule.wordpress.com/tag/prince-william/

2010

The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey, addressed the girls and their parents. The Dean spoke of his time at Starehe, where he volunteered during a year out between School and University, and where he says he was particularly inspired by Dr Geoffrey Griffin, Starehe’s founding father.

http://www.starehe.org/downloads/Autumn_2010_StareheFuture_Newsletter.pdf

Starehe has built itself an international reputation and has been honoured by visits from many famous persons. Among them have been Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (when Crown Princess), T.R.H. Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, HRH the Duke of Gloucester

http://www.stareheboyscentre.ac.ke/sbc/school-info/history-of-starehe/


The Dulverton Trust, Slave Traders & Much Worse

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OvVxQOi7fD8J:thebridgelifeinthemix.info/in-profile/in-profile-the-dulverton-trust-slave-traders-much-worse/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has renamed Ngara Ring Road to Dr Geoffrey William Griffin Road in honour of the founder of the Starehe Boys Centre.

July 22nd 2018

 

Nairobi — The Princess Royal yesterday wound up her four-day visit with a visit to the Starehe Boys’ Centre.

She addressed students at the school, which has benefited greatly from her charity work over the years.

https://allafrica.com/stories/199810010049.html

Alan Lennox Boyd-prior owner of Henlow Grange

“Churchill protege Alan Lennox-Boyd, who married sisters, Guinness heiresses, but enjoyed riotous homosexual adventures behind the scenes. Lennox-Boyd had a distinguished ministerial career in several governments…”


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster


(The Guinness family seems to have had many points of contact with abuse circles. )

bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/savile-and-henlow-grange-champneys-health-spa/ …

Alan Lennox Boyd’s son: Mark Lennox-Boyd invested in Harvey Proctor’s Cottonrose shirt shop

and was Mrs Thatcher’s private parliamentary secretary…

Sir Mark was born into the Guinness brewing dynasty, he studied at Eton and Oxford, became a barrister and was the MP for Morecambe from 1979-1997. His career as a Conservative politician saw him work as Mrs Thatcher’s private parliamentary secretary and he travelled widely as a Foreign Office minister.

…has have a flat in London where he is part of a small group of loyal supporters who look after his former boss, Baroness Thatcher, who stayed at Gresgarth a few times when she was Prime Minister

http://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/people/the_story_of_sundials_and_the_former_morecambe_mp_1_1643851

£300 gift from Alan Lennox-Boyd to Starehe

Image result for Geoffrey Griffin is headmaster of The Starehe Boys Centre

Geoffrey W. Griffin, OGH, MBS, OBE
Scout leader. Griffin never married

...how quick Griffin was to use corporal punishment. He could cane a whole class of 35 boys and shout “Next!” after caning the 35th.

Geoffrey Griffin is headmaster of The Starehe Boys Centre, … has been caning Kenyan children for decades.

https://books.google.com/books?id=fCBPAQAAIAAJ&q=%22alan+lennox-boyd%22+%2B+%22starehe%22&dq=%22alan+lennox-boyd%22+%2B+%22starehe%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2mcmevuLcAhWBtVMKHU3lAO4Q6AEILTAB

Patrick Shaw

So, was this man a crime-buster or a psycopath let loose on the streets of Nairobi… with a loaded gun?

Many who spent time with or near him say they were convinced the man had a split personality.

“Despite the extrajudicial killings and his run-ins with the darker side of Nairobi,” one of his informants says, “the man would every now and then exhibit the traits of a humanitarian angel. For instance, he was able to set aside his psycopathic ways and become the principled, fun-loving guy at Starehe Boy’s Centre.”

A police officer he worked with described Shaw as “completely out of control” and “out of bounds of the constitutional description of what an officer should be”.

“He did not report to any particular police station, he used his personal car, and had no fixed jurisdiction,”

It is difficult to estimate, even modestly, how many suspected gangsters Shaw killed.

“Literally hundreds,” one former informant estimates. “At least one fatality a week.”

he JM Kariuki mystery

“The sun shines for both the evil and the good, but there are those who keep their faces to the sunshine and cannot see their shadow,” Shaw is reported to have once said.

At the time, he had come under scrutiny over his extrajudicial killings and the omnipresence he exhibited in the criminal underworld. It was, however, the disappearance and later murder of politician J M Kariuki that sent shivers down the hitman’s spine. His character had been called to question by MPs, who wondered how the man was always the first to arrive at scenes of crime, way before the police did.

When word went around that Shaw had been involved in the arrest of JM, the world started crumbling all around him. Suddenly, he was no longer a revered crime-buster, but a likely criminal himself.

In 1981, John Keen, then Assistant Minister in the Office of the President, was summoned to give testimony to Parliament on the progress the government had made in controlling crime.

“Nine hundred and eighty one gangsters were arrested in the past year,” he testified. In a supplementary question, one MP asked: “And why is it that Patrick Shaw is always the first to arrive on the scene of a crime and not African police?”

Still, the country was not convinced that the fellow was such a “fine policeman” as claimed, and henceforth viewed him with suspicion.

**********

Did you know?

During the 1982 coup attempt by officers from Kenya Air Force, Shaw was in Europe fundraising for Starehe.

(Shaw) is said to have been behind the torture of many who were arrested in connection with the failed coup.

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/A-one-man-judicial-system/957860-1730208-jcqn5uz/index.html

PHOTO | FILE Patrick Shaw (at the back) during his days as an administrator at Starehe Boys’ Centre.

Patrick Shaw never married

It was in 1962, while on a tour in London to promote Starehe’s Youth-Helps-Youth campaign, that Griffin recounts first meeting Shaw.

Previously while on police patrol, Shaw had occasionally stopped his car outside the centre to observe the activities.

While on leave back home in London, Shaw read about what the London press dubbed the “Sunshine Kids” and in turn made a call to Griffin’s hotel room to request if he could assist.

Griffin obliged and Shaw acted as an escort for the remainder of the London visit.

Martin references that upon his return to Kenya, Shaw began to volunteer more for Starehe and eventually took up the chairmanship of the “house committee”, which was “informally responsible for the fundraising activities.”

Shaw resigned from the agricultural service in 1965 and when Griffin offered him a position as administrative officer, at a very modest salary, he accepted.

The two went on to become close colleagues and friends — a relationship that would last for nearly three decades.

In 1969, Shaw rose to the ranks of assistant director in charge of administration.

https://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/Patrick-Shaw/957860-1728956-15af8br/index.html

 



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St Benedict’s: Paedophile Ring – Chris Patten / Patrick Rock / Laurence Soper / Peter Allott /Balkans / Vatican

 

@JonathanWest_

Here is what @InquiryCSA says in its report into abuse at Ealing Abbey & St.Benedict’s about Christopher Cleugh, headmaster from 2002-16. Short version: He lied “to the point of materially misrepresenting significant facts” to minimise the scale of abuse.

Inquiry publishes report into Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School

24 October 2019

The Inquiry has today (24 October) published its report into the Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School public hearings.

This is part of the English Benedictine Congregation case study and is within the wider investigation into the Roman Catholic Church. The report contains an update of the Ampleforth and Downside case studies, also part of the English Benedictine Congregation.

During five days of public hearings in February 2019, the Inquiry heard evidence from those who had been sexually abused as children at St Benedict’s School.

The report describes the atmosphere at St Benedict’s as sadistic and predatory with a culture of excessive corporal punishment. In many cases, physical abuse was used as a platform for sexual gratification and a means by which to instigate sexual abuse.

The report considers the evidence heard by the Inquiry of extensive sexual abuse against children in Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School and highlights the flawed responses to allegations, from both the Church and external institutions.

It considers how very senior figures at the school or abbey were perpetrators of abuse, with staff members warned to say nothing, leaving victims feeling they had nowhere to turn.

This led to a culture of abuse spanning over 30 years. Since 2003, four members of staff connected to St Benedict’s have been convicted of multiple offences for the sexual abuse of over 20 children. Another teacher was convicted of offences relating to the possession of indecent images of children in 2016. The total scale of abuse can never be known, but it is likely to be much greater.

“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t been abused … I feel like I am still in a black hole and just can’t climb out of it. I don’t think I can ever put down in words fully what [Soper] has done to me. He has damaged me for life and I am afraid that that damage will never go away.”  – RC-A622, Pen Portraits, page 8

The Inquiry received evidence of at least 18 further allegations against the men convicted and eight other monks and teachers. This ranged from corporal punishment to grooming, fondling of genitalia, masturbation, and oral and anal rape.

The report found that whilst there were significant opportunities to stop abusers in the school, these were not acted upon. Instead, a culture of cover-up and denial at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s meant the abuse went on for decades.

The leadership failure of Abbot Martin Shipperlee is also highlighted in the report. It found serious shortcomings in his response to allegations and handling of child protection concerns, concluding that any action he did take was often inadequate and ill-judged.

During the Inquiry’s investigation into Ealing Abbey, Abbot Shipperlee resigned. He told the press:

 “As the IICSA hearings have shown, there has been a series of serious failings in safeguarding and some of those failings have been mine. Much has been achieved to correct this in recent years and I have confidence in the present structures and policies. However this does not take away from the seriousness of what went before. In order for the Abbey to look forward with confidence new leadership is now needed and so I have resigned as Abbot so that this may be possible.” (Page 14)

The responses of external institutions are described as defective, resulting in children being left at risk of abuse or further abuse.

The Chair and Panel conclude that it remains to be seen whether Ealing Abbey proves itself capable of ensuring proper safeguarding of children at risk in future.

The report’s publication comes before the Inquiry’s final public hearing into the Roman Catholic Church, which will begin on the 28 October and will run for two weeks.

Professor Alexis Jay, Chair of the Inquiry, said: 

“For years, a culture of cover-up and denial meant children at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School suffered appalling sexual and physical abuse.

“A reluctance to properly respond to safeguarding concerns meant significant opportunities to stop abusers were missed. When action was taken, the responses of senior staff, headmasters and external institutions were often poorly judged or flawed. As a result, children were left at risk of abuse which could have been stopped decades earlier.”

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/news/inquiry-publishes-report-ealing-abbey-and-st-benedict%E2%80%99s-school

Executive Summary

Laurence Soper and David Pearce

A particularly startling aspect of the sexual abuse perpetrated at the school was that very senior figures at the school or Abbey were abusers. David Pearce was the head of the junior school and then bursar; Laurence Soper was head of the middle school, bursar, Prior then Abbot. This created particular problems for those who wished to report sexual abuse – not only the victims, but also others, such as members of staff who heard rumours or observed behaviour that caused concern. Reporting such matters was therefore made more difficult by the seniority of those against whom the complaint would have been made. Staff members have described the atmosphere as feeling “like the mafia” and chose not to risk their jobs.[3]

Pearce was a serial abuser of boys. At least 14 pupils have complained to the statutory authorities of being sexually abused by him. Their allegations span a 32-year period from 1976 to 2008. In October 2009, Pearce was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment (reduced to five years on appeal in May 2010) for various sexual offences against five of these pupils. That was not the end of the matter, however, and in 2011 Pearce faced a further trial relating to indecent assaults against another pupil but was acquitted. In relation to the eight other boys, there was either no complaint made to the police or a decision made by the police/Crown Prosecution Service not to proceed.

It appears that many in the school and Abbey – teachers and monks alike – were aware of Pearce’s behaviour but were seemingly powerless to do anything about it. Gossip amongst the boys and staff was rife and complaints, including from parents, failed to trigger any action by the school or, in the rare event that information was communicated externally, by the statutory authorities. Staff were afraid that by speaking up they would lose their jobs. Pearce may well have been emboldened by this inertia as his abuse became less secretive, filming the boys at the swimming pool, lining them up naked and committing sexual assaults with apparent impunity. Unsurprisingly, Pearce was protected by Soper, but other Abbots and headmasters throughout this period also failed to act to protect children under their care.

Soper is known to have abused at least 10 children at St Benedict’s between 1972 and 1983, including multiple rapes. Many of the assaults were committed during acts of corporal punishment apparently inflicted on the slightest of pretexts. Soper’s predilection for caning boys was well known amongst the boys and staff at the school. He was told to stop by a previous headmaster at some point in the late 1970s or early 1980s. This had no effect, and he continued to cane and sexually assault boys on many occasions.

His campaign of sexual abuse was allowed to continue because of the inaction of those who had the power to do something to stop it or bring him to justice. By 2002 – two years after he had resigned as Abbot – Soper had been appointed general treasurer for the International Benedictine Conference in Rome, residing in Sant’Anselmo. Whilst on police bail in 2011, he left Sant’Anselmo, purportedly returning to London. He absconded and a European Arrest Warrant was issued. Some five years later he was located in Kosovo and extradited. In 2017, he was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment – over 40 years had elapsed since his offending began.

The role of Abbots

There were significant opportunities to stop abusers in the school which were not acted upon. When Abbot Martin Shipperlee took over as Abbot from Soper in 2000, many were hopeful that a “new broom[4] had arrived. Indeed, some improvements to child protection were made. He commissioned a number of independent reports from experts.

David Tregaskis, a clinical criminologist with extensive experience of providing risk assessments, provided a report about the risk Pearce posed to children. He concluded that there was a “major concern” and “clear boundaries” should be placed upon him.[5] Although restrictions were placed upon Pearce, they were not monitored properly. In 2006, the sexual abuse committed by Pearce was established in a civil trial brought by one of his victims. Mr Justice Field said he found Pearce’s account “extremely unconvincing[6] and the allegations were found proven. There were no changes to the restrictions already placed upon Pearce, although there could have been no doubt about the risk he posed. In the same year as the civil trial, Pearce started to sexually abuse a 16-year-old boy who was working in the monastery.

There were also limitations to the advice Abbot Shipperlee received from the Diocese of Westminster Child Protection Team. In particular, the advice provided in respect of imposing restrictions upon Pearce and others failed to give any guidance on how compliance with those restrictions should be enforced and monitored. The Child Protection Officer failed to keep the risk posed by Pearce and the restrictions in place under review, particularly following the successful civil claim. Pearce should have been required to leave Ealing Abbey – particularly given its proximity to the school.

When Pearce was convicted in 2009, Abbot Shipperlee commissioned a further review by Philip Wright, the safeguarding coordinator for the diocese of Brighton and Arundel and John Nixson, an independent child protection specialist. Despite the mounting child protection concerns against Soper and another monk, the review was confined to Pearce. There was no consideration of the underlying material. The whole exercise was limited to two days’ work. John Nixson in his written evidence to the Inquiry stated: “with the benefit of further reflection, it is now evident to me that Abbot Martin presented the existing concerns and findings about individual members of the religious community in a minimal manner”.[7]

The Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation in the period from 2001 to 2017, Dom Richard Yeo, did not significantly contribute to the response of Ealing Abbey to the allegations of child sexual abuse made in that period. During his 2007 Visitation he did not inquire into the restrictions upon Pearce and gave no consideration to issues of risk management. In his report to the monastic community, there was no express recognition of the fact that the judge in the civil proceedings in 2006 had found Pearce to be an unconvincing witness. He conceded that, in retrospect:

“I should probably have suggested at the 2007 Visitation that it was too serious a risk to allow … Pearce to continue to live in the monastery”.[8]

Throughout this time, public pressure was mounting. A series of articles appeared in The Times, the Charity Commission published a critical report, public disquiet gained momentum through Jonathan West’s blog, the Independent Schools Inspectorate had published a follow-up report which was critical of Trustees, and the Minister of State for Schools was seeking “assurance that all ISI’s recommendations will be implemented”.[9]

In the light of these pressures, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC was commissioned in 2010 to prepare a report. Abbot Shipperlee submitted five principles for reform which Lord Carlile accepted. He firmly stated, however, that reforms could not take place under the auspices of a single trust and recommended the creation of two separate charitable trusts – in effect separating the school from the Abbey. St Benedict’s School became truly independent of Ealing Abbey on 1 September 2012.

During the Inquiry’s investigation into Ealing Abbey, Abbot Shipperlee resigned. He admitted to the Inquiry “as has been serially revealed, my administration of safeguarding is of insufficient standard”.[10]

The role of headmasters

Headmasters as well as Abbots played a significant role in managing child protection issues. Christopher Cleugh, during his time as headmaster of the school between 2002 and 2016, repeatedly minimised questions of child sexual abuse to teachers and to external institutions and parents, to the point of materially misrepresenting significant facts. Although he told the Independent Schools Inspectorate that one of the monks had been charged with an assault on a pupil doing work experience in the monastery, he did not tell them that Pearce had been under restrictions at the time, nor did he tell them about the successful civil action against Pearce. He did not address safeguarding issues openly and proactively; when answers were given, he was defensive. One former teacher, Peter Halsall, said the previous culture of cover-up and denial at the school was “followed … by passing the buck”.[11]

Andrew Johnson, who was appointed headmaster in 2016, described a number of improvements to safeguarding, including record-keeping and vetting, compulsory reporting to Ealing Social Services, safeguarding training for staff, information for students and parents, and the operation of the safeguarding sub-committee. He also outlined that he had commissioned an audit report from Philip Threlfall, an independent safeguarding consultant, who concluded that the school was committed to safeguarding and that the “right things are in place”.[12] In order for these changes to have a long-term impact, it will now be for those in responsibility at the school to remain vigilant so as to ensure that safeguarding remains a priority.

The role of external agencies

The Metropolitan Police made mistakes in how some of the early allegations against Pearce and Soper were investigated. For example, in 2001, one of the victims told the police that Pearce had forcibly grabbed his trousers and pants and looked down into his pants, and that Pearce had put his hands down the swimming trunks of another boy, “for a couple of seconds having a feel around”.[13] In July 2002, the police decided to take that case no further, the investigating officer concluding “I have been unable to find evidence of any criminal offences”.[14] This approach was unreasonable. Commander Neil Jerome, in his evidence to us, agreed. There were also failures in respect of the investigation into the allegations against Pearce in respect of another boy, including a failure to provide all relevant information to the Crown Prosecution Service when a prosecution decision was sought.

The Crown Prosecution Service shares some responsibility for the fact that neither Pearce nor Soper were prosecuted in 2004, when serious allegations were made by two victims against them. It was not until 2009 and 2017 that Pearce and Soper were convicted of the abuse. In the Crown Prosecution Service decision regarding one victim’s allegations against Pearce, the reviewing lawyer wrongly adopted a requirement for corroboration. Likewise, in the decision concerning another victim’s allegations against Soper, the Crown Prosecution Service lawyer took the view that a victim’s word against a perpetrator was insufficient to found a prosecution instead of considering whether the victim’s account could be supported by other evidence or whether Soper’s account could be undermined.

There were also deficiencies in the consideration of the situation at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School by those external bodies charged with regulating the management of charities (the Charity Commission) and inspecting independent schools (the Independent Schools Inspectorate). The Charity Commission was undertaking a statutory inquiry into Ealing Abbey’s handling of Pearce at the very time when he was committing further child sexual abuse. The Commission’s conclusion at the time, that appropriate steps were being taken, was based on assurances given by Ealing Abbey, which were not scrutinised or tested. Likewise, the Independent Schools Inspectorate oversaw an inspection in 2009 which concluded that the child protection policy was compliant with statutory guidance, and that an independent review into Pearce’s offending had been conducted and its advice fully implemented: both conclusions were wrong. The 2009 report was withdrawn in April 2010 and an unannounced, non-routine further inspection was carried out, resulting in a critical report of August 2010. But for the fact that members of the public drew the deficiencies of the 2009 report to the Commission’s attention, there may have been no such rectification of the position.

It is notable that in 2010 the Department for Education did not have the statutory power to enforce a recommendation made by the Independent Schools Inspectorate to the effect that monks who had been the subject of allegations should not reside at Ealing Abbey. As a result, the Minister for Schools wrote to the Charity Commission in October 2010 to see if the Charity Commission might be able to use its powers to enforce compliance in this regard. The position is now different. From January 2015 changes to the statutory standards by which independent schools are judged have rectified this gap in the Department’s powers.

The role of the Holy See

Prior to the hearing, the Inquiry sought a witness statement and documentation from the Holy See, initially through a voluntary request to its diplomatic representative in the United Kingdom, the Apostolic Nuncio, who is covered by diplomatic immunity. The request included asking what steps were taken after Soper’s disappearance that might have assisted in locating him. The Holy See has confirmed that it does not intend to provide a witness statement but has provided some documentation which is being reviewed and may be considered further, if necessary, during the hearings we are holding in October and November 2019.
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/publications/investigation/english-benedictine-congregation-ealing-abbey/part-1-ealing-abbey-and-st-benedicts-school/executive-summary

Feb 25 2109

The hearings have become a case study exposing the many systemic obstacles to safeguarding of pupils in the English Benedictine Order (EBO) and the wider Catholic Church, in no small measure as a direct result of control imposed by the Vatican.

Extent of abuse

Serious abuse of pupils that was not reported to the civil authorities has been found in every EBO school in England and the outlying one at Fort Augustus, remote in the Scottish highlands. Fort Augustus has since been closed, having been described in a BBC documentary as a “‘dumping ground’ for problem clergy who had confessed to abusing children“.

Abuse reported to the Ealing Inquiry included “excessive physical chastisement – sometimes apparently for sexual gratification, grooming; fondling of genitalia; anal penetration; and rape”.

Lawyers believed that “since World War II… hundreds of boys were molested at St Benedict’s”. “Monks had been behaving this way at the school for 60 consecutive years to 2010. … [I]t was part of the culture”. Given this and the Inquiry alone learning of 66 allegations, it is plausible that thousands have been abused there since the foundation in 1902 of the school dubbed “one of Britain’s most notorious dens of paedophilia“.

Notably, “at Ealing, the sexual abuse was perpetrated by those at the very top of the organisation”, for many decades. This meant abuse could be perpetrated with impunity which also “turned St Benedict’s into a honeypot for other [abusers]”.

The Vatican Bank withheld the address of Soper on the run from the police. Tellingly, that he had provided it to the bank suggests Soper’s total confidence it would not be divulged, i.e. total confidence the Vatican would defy requests by European police to identify an absconder. That adds to the Vatican’s shameless record as a haven for those fleeing justice.

The latest conviction, once more of a senior master, is Dr Peter Allott, jailed in 2016 for possessing nearly 400 obscene images of children (found in the school but not of Ealing pupils) and class A drugs to which he had become addicted. He was deputy headmaster and had been teaching there since 2004. Allott’s conviction makes it rather harder to claim that such abuse is solely a historic problem.

Most telling of all was that until recently, the school fought shamelessly with all its tenacity to retain the ability not to report abuse complaints to civil authorities where parents or pupils did not wish to do so.

A lawyer testified that “on the very same day, you have a survivor of the kind of abuse on which the report focused being threatened by a member of [headteacher] Cleugh’s staff in the street near the school”. He quoted the survivor: “While I was being interviewed, a car appeared and mounted the pavement, narrowly missing the cameraman. The doors flew open and a man I subsequently learned was a teacher at St Benedict’s leapt out, accompanied by a shaven-headed security thug, and started ranting and raving about trespassing on school property [which it was not].” The inquiry learned that a complaint to Mr Cleugh about this did not even elicit an explanation, far less an apology.

https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2019/02/iicsas-ealing-hearings-showed-the-catholic-church-cant-be-trusted-to-police-itself?fbclid=IwAR2tLWZyoyiGw4p1dcLOLbMRuT-HS2PsnjT8EZ8Ac-F47YHz58JIfMgkZPs

Ealing Abbey abbot resigns over failure to investigate child abuse allegations

8 Feb 2019

The abbot of Ealing Abbey has resigned over a failure to investigate child sexual abuse allegations at a London school amid an escalating diplomatic row prompted by the papal nuncio’s reluctance to cooperate with a public inquiry.

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) was informed on Friday that Dom Martin Shipperlee, who had been abbot since 2000 and taught at St Benedict’s School in west London, had given up his responsibilities.

His abrupt departure comes immediately after he appeared before the inquiry, answering questions about how he handled allegations of sexual abuse against monks and teachers at the school dating back decades.

Two senior monks and teachers, Andrew Soper and David Pearce, were jailed for a series of offences against pupils at the school. Soper, who was found guilty of 19 rapes and sexual offences at St Benedict’s, fled to Kosovo at one stage in an attempt to escape justice.

The public inquiry has written to the pope’s representative in Britain, the archbishop Edward Adams, asking him to disclose details of his handling of complaints about Catholic schools in England and Wales and specifically relating to investigations at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school.

The papal nuncio has so far failed to comply and declined to comment about the requests. David Enright, a solicitor at the law firm Howe and Co who represents 18 victims of abuse by Catholic priests and monks, who are taking part in IICSA, has written to Theresa May asking her to expel Adams if he does not comply.

In a statement to the Guardian, the Foreign Office confirmed it was investigating the papal nuncio’s position. A spokesperson said: “The government takes the issue of child protection extremely seriously. We fully support the IICSA inquiry and are looking into this matter further.”

The inquiry was told on Thursday that the nuncio was consulting with his superiors in Rome. Downing Street has not yet commented on the diplomatic standoff.

Shipperlee’s resignation was announced at the child sexual abuse inquiry on Friday by Dom Christopher Jamison, the head of the Benedictine Order in England. “This morning I received a letter from Abbot Martin Shipperlee offering me his resignation with immediate effect as abbot of Ealing,” he said.

Dom Martin Shipperlee faced questioning over handling of sexual abuse claims at school

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/08/ealing-abbey-abbot-martin-shipperlee-resigns-failure-investigate-child-sexual-abuse

Head of Catholic order failed to tell police of sexual abuse at London school

Abbot ‘did not know’ if findings at Benedictine school were relevant, national inquiry told
23 Feb 2017

The head of one of the country’s most powerful Catholic orders was made aware of sex abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s at one of its schools but did not alert the authorities – contrary to the recommendations of a church commission on which he sat.

The wide-ranging Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse has been shown a handwritten document compiled by Abbot Richard Yeo, who as president of the Benedictines conducted an inquiry at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, in June 2010 following reports that there had been widespread abuse of pupils by teachers and monks.

The year before Yeo’s visit, Father David Pearce, the former head of the junior school, had been jailed for eight years – reduced to five on appeal –after being found guilty of abusing five boys over a 36-year period.

According to notes Yeo took when he visited St Benedict’s, and which will soon be uploaded on to the inquiry’s website, many at the school had been concerned about Pearce decades before he was jailed. Yeo’s notes state: “Mid 70s knew David engaged in dubious activities.” Another monk told him: “Knew since I was junior school head there was something wrong. Graffiti ‘Fr David is bent’.” A third said he was aware of rumours of abuse when he arrived 25 years ago, and expressed disbelief that a former abbot claimed to Yeo he “never knew anything about it”.

The Catholic church’s failure to confront systemic clerical sexual abuse was acknowledged last week at an unprecedented summit on the issue opened by Pope Francis, attended by 180 bishops and cardinals. “The holy people of God are watching and expect not just simple and obvious condemnations, but efficient and concrete measures to be established,” he warned.

Yeo, who stood down as president of the Benedictines in 2017, told the inquiry he did not pass his 2010 notes on to the police because Pearce had already been jailed and that he did not know if they had any evidential value.

But Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater & Gordon, who is representing several of the victims at the school, and referred to Yeo’s note in a blogpost, said it was not for the abbot to determine what was relevant to the inquiry. He described Yeo’s failure to share his notes with the police as remarkable given that he had been a member of the 2007 Cumberlege commission, the Catholic church’s review of its child safeguarding policies in England and Wales.

“The Cumberlege commission report from 2007 is clear that ‘all allegations of abuse are required to be reported to the statutory authorities who must decide whether a statutory investigation is required,’” Scorer said. “Yeo was a member of this commission, yet when allegations of abuse came into his possession in 2010 he failed to follow the Cumberlege commission’s own rules and report them to the statutory authorities. This demonstrates yet again that senior figures in the Catholic church are happy to ignore the church’s own rules when it suits them and self-policing in the Catholic church always fails.”

Jonathan West, the father of a former pupil, who was instrumental in raising concerns, said repeated failure to investigate abuse at the school highlighted the need for mandatory reporting, which would require all staff working with children to report concerns about the welfare of a child to the local authority.

“Mandatory reporting would make it almost impossible for a long-running situation such as occurred at St Benedict’s to happen,” West said. “First, there will inevitably be a greater climate of awareness making reporting more likely. And second, no head teacher is going to risk being prosecuted for suppressing a report of somebody else abusing. These two factors will make it extremely dangerous for abusers to operate in schools. They won’t dare. Abuse will be prevented as a result.”

The inquiry has heard that there were numerous warning signs which should have triggered intervention.

Katherine Ravenscroft, a drama teacher, said that when she joined the school in 1990, “it was spoken about quite freely among the boys in the school that Father David Pearce would oversee swimming while they were in the junior school and that he would line the boys up naked after swimming to feel them in order to check that they were dry”.

Ravenscroft told the inquiry in a statement now published on its website that there were also rumours about Abbot Laurence Soper – who was convicted in 2017 of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences against 10 boys at the school.

Ravenscroft raised her concerns with police the same year. When she told the new headmaster, Christopher Cleugh, that she wished she had reported the concerns about Pearce earlier, she said he responded: “You can rest assured he will seek absolution for his sins.”

Ravenscroft said it seemed child protection at the school was not taken seriously until its deputy head master, Peter Allott, was sentenced in 2016. “It still seemed as if things were being brushed to one side,” she said in her statement.

Penny Jones, a deputy director of the independent education and school governance division in the Department for Education, said in 2010 ministers were alarmed to learn monks who had committed sexual offences were still living in Ealing Abbey next to the school. “We lacked the powers necessary to require the abbot to remove monks who had offended from the abbey, as the power to remove monks fell [outside] DfE’s jurisdiction,” Jones told the inquiry.

Who knew about the abuse at St Benedict’s? The entire Catholic Church

Feb 17 2019

At the child sexual abuse inquiry Stephen Bleach sees the truth emerge about the school where he and other boys were harmed. And it hits him: the instinct to shield paedophiles was endemic

Earlier this month the inquiry spent five days examining the appalling record of child abuse at Ealing Abbey, west London, and the school it ran, St Benedict’s — where I was a pupil in the 1970s.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/who-knew-about-the-abuse-at-st-benedicts-the-entire-catholic-church-cmxfv2qm7

 

 @JonathanWest

One thing that became clear at the hearing was how outsiders with concerns were frozen out and ignored (and even accused of anti-Catholic motives) while commissioning advice from people (like Lord Carlile) who said what they wanted to hear, that all is well now.

Had Carlile been right in saying that, there wouldn’t have been so much still to be discovered in the inquiry hearing and there would have been no need for the Abbot (who commissioned Carlile) to resign before the hearing had even finished.

Catholic Abbot RESIGNS after he admits didn’t report priest jailed for child sex offence

THE Abbot of a Benedictine abbey has resigned after it emerged he withheld an allegation of abuse from police about a priest who was later jailed for child sex offences committed while teaching at a leading Catholic school.

Feb 8, 2019

child sex abuse

Abbot Martin Shipperlee has resigned

Abbot Martin Shipperlee of Ealing Abbey offered his resignation in a letter after serving as the head of St Benedict’s Junior School in West London from 1993 to 2000. It comes after Express.co.uk reported Abbot Shipperlee failed to report a claim of abuse against a Benedictine monk to the police when informed of it in 2001. Dom Jamieson, current Abbot President of EBC, revealed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that today he received a letter from Abbot Shipperlee offering his resignation as Abbot of Ealing.

Abbot Shipperlee stated in his resignation letter: “My administration of safeguarding as has been serially revealed, has been of an insufficient standard.”

To which Abbot Jamieson said: “In light of this I have accepted his resignation.”

David Pearce and Laurence Soper, two Benedictine monks from the abbey who taught at the £16,845-a-year school, were jailed in 2009 and 2017 for historic child abuse offences.

Abbot Shipperlee last week admitted to the IICSA he failed to report a claim of abuse against Soper to the police when informed of it in 2001.

child sex abuse

Laurence Soper was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey in December 2017

He said: “Because I simply did not believe that this was possible.

“I was outraged that such an accusation could be made against someone of whom I – well, it did not occur to me that it was possible that this sort of thing could happen.”

Reacting to news of his resignaiton, Mr O’Donnell, representing Jonathan West, said: “Under the circumstances, it seems sensible to us that Abbot Shipperlee has tended his resignation, but we do ask the question whether this would have happened if he had not given evidence to the Inquiry.”

“In the current era, can parents really trust Catholic organisations to take care of their children.”

In October 2009, Pearce, a former junior school head master at St Benedict’s, was jailed for eight years for abuse at the school from 1972 to 1992, as well as one offence in 2007.

Soper, the former Abbot, was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey in December 2017 after being on the run for five years.

He was arrested in Kosovo and extradited to the UK, where he was convicted of 19 counts of child sex abuse.

In a witness statement to the inquiry last Thursday, Abbot Shipperlee said he was unaware of receiving any complaints against Laurence Soper between 1980 and 2001.

During today’s inquiry, Imran Khan QC on behalf of G2, said: “It has taken a great deal of courage and resilience for victims and survivors who have clearly been traumatised for sharing their accounts with us.”

While Alan Collins representing G1 and G3 to G6 said: ”If there is no change, the risk of child abuse in Catholic organisations will continue.”

When speaking about lessons learnt, Abbot Jamieson told the inquiry: “The need to stop being self referential, moving beyond that, I want know what is it about the Catholic culture that seems to have facilitated a culture of abuse.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1084413/child-sex-abuse-catholic-priest-resign-st-benedicts

@Richard_Scorer

“It is clear that the Vatican Bank were facilitating Soper’s flight from justice and failed to hand over information which would have assisted the police in locating him… this gives the lie to the Pope’s claims to want to root out abusers in the church”.

Catholic Abbot didn’t report abuse allegation against priest jailed for child sex offences

THE Abbot of a Benedictine abbey withheld an allegation of abuse from police about a priest who was later jailed for child sex offences committed while teaching at a leading Catholic school, an inquiry heard this week.

Feb 8, 2019

Martin Shipperlee

Abbot Martin Shipperlee

Abbot Martin Shipperlee of Ealing Abbey was head of St Benedict’s Junior School in West London from 1993 to 2000. David Pearce and Laurence Soper, two Benedictine monks from the abbey who taught at the £16,845-a-year school, were jailed in 2009 and 2017 for historic child abuse offences. Two ex-teachers who taught at the school at the time of the sex-abuse allegations described the institution then as “a bit like the mafia”.

Abbot Shipperlee admitted to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) he failed to report an allega

tion of abuse against Soper to the police child protection team when informed of it in 2001.

He said: “Because I simply did not believe that this was possible.

“I was outraged that such an accusation could be made against someone of whom I – well, it did not occur to me that it was possible that this sort of thing could happen.”

In October 2009, Pearce, a former junior school head master at St Benedict’s, was jailed for eight years for abuse at the school from 1972 to 1992, as well as one offence in 2007.

Soper, the former Abbot, was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey in December 2017 after being on the run for five years.

He was arrested in Kosovo and extradited to the UK, where he was convicted of 19 counts of child sex abuse.

In a witness statement to the inquiry on Thursday, Abbot Shipperlee said he was unaware of receiving any complaints against Laurence Soper between 1980 and 2001.

The inquiry heard a statement from a mother, whose four-year-old son was going to St Benedict’s junior school around 1997, saying a staff member had warned her about both Soper a

She wrote: “A senior member of the office staff approached me and told me not to leave my son, who would have been four at the time, on his own in the office at any time when Father David or Abbot Laurence were there.

“The person then told me that the child would be safer because they preferred boys with blond hair and blue eyes.

“The person then told me that Father David had been moved from the junior school to keep him away from the younger boys.”

In October 2001, the Archdiocese of Westminster wrote to Abbot Shipperlee with a victim’s claim of abuse by Soper.

St Benedicts

David Pearce and Laurence Soper taught at St Benedicts School when the abuse took place (Image: NC)

A further letter in December, 2001 from the Archdiocese to Abbot Shiperlee said “the serious claim against Abbot Laurence Soper should be reported to the child protection team at Ealing Police Station”.

Inquiry counsel Riel Karmuy-Jones, QC, asked Abbot Shipperlee why he still had not informed the police despite being advised to do so.

He replied he was “convinced in my own mind it must be a spurious claim”.

Ms Karmuy-Jones said: “You took the view that your opinion of the situation had more weight than the opinion of the Diocese of Westminster?”

Abbot Shipperlee said: “Yes. I was wrong.”

Ms Karmuy-Jones replied: “Is that how you have approached safeguarding during your time?”

Abbot Shipperlee said: “No, you can see plenty of times when I have not done that, but you do have to make the judgment yourself.”

Despite not telling the police, Abbot Shipperlee went on to warn Bassingbourn Barracks – where Soper acted as chaplain in the army training regiment in 2002 – about the allegation.

In 2004, another allegation of rape and corporal punishment was made against Soper from the 1970s.

Abbot Shipperlee admitted not asking for a risk assessment about Soper as he “didn’t think it necessary”.

On Wednesday, the inquiry heard statements from two ex-teachers who described St Benedict’s at the time of the abuse allegations as “a bit like the mafia”.

One teacher said in a statement “if anybody complained or said anything about Pearce, Laurence Soper would protect him and to complain meant putting your job on the line.

“There had been a number of complaints against Pearce.”

Laurence Soper

Laurence Soper went on the run in Kosovo but was arrested in 2016 and extradited to UK (Image: NC)

A senior accounts assistant, who worked from 1995 to 2005, said she was warned by St Benedict’s head master, Dr Dachs after complaining about Pearce’s behaviour.

In a statement, she said: “On most Friday afternoons when I was on my own in the office, Father David would bring two or three boys to his office.

“He would shut the door and cover the glass window in the door with paper so that nobody could see into the office.

“I can’t remember how old they were, but they were not from the junior school, so would have been 11 or older.

“I was concerned about this so I contacted the headmaster, Dr Dachs. He told me, ‘If you know what’s good for you, keep your head down and do your job’.

“A short time later, I was talking to Abbot Laurence and I mentioned my concerns to him.

“He told me not to worry because the allegations against Father David were unfounded.

“I said that he was still around boys and Abbot Laurence said that Father David ‘just liked little boys’.

“I asked why Father David had been moved from the junior school and he said because he was ‘a sick man’.”

Abbot Shipperlee also told the panel he “did nothing” despite hearing Pearce had “a preference for blond children”.

The inquiry heard Pearce is now living in a flat and has his rent paid by Ealing Abbey through “charitable funds”.

The IICSA is the largest ever Government inquiry and is expected to last until at least 2020.

It is looking at 13 different investigations, including the Catholic Church.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1084189/child-sex-abuse-catholic-priests-st-benedicts

IICSA

The Inquiry will hold a week of public hearings into allegations of child sexual abuse at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s School, part of the Roman Catholic Church investigation from 4 – 8 February 2019

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/news/inquiry-hold-public-hearing-ealing-abbey-and-st-benedict%E2%80%99s-school

InquiryCSAVerified account @InquiryCSA

The witness concludes his evidence by giving a short statement. “Since WW2 we reckon that hundreds of boys were molested at St Benedict’s. If this country had mandatory reporting like the legislation currently in draft, hundreds of those wouldn’t have been abused.”

@Richard_Scorer

V clear from evidence at that Abbot of Ealing (Shipperlee) delayed in providing crucial information to police which wd have assisted in apprehending paedophile priest Laurence Soper, who had fled to Kosovo. Shows how hollow are Catholic Church “apologies” to victims

Also revealed in today – a “lack of appetite” on part of Vatican to assist with apprehension of paedophile priest Soper. Vatican Bank had his secret address in Kosovo

Jonathan West‏@JonathanWest:

One of the Ealing monks was also chaplain of another local catholic independent school, St Augustine’s Priory School for Girls.

Even after this monk had to resign as a trustee & governor of St Benedict’s and was placed on “restricted ministry” because of allegations of abuse, he remained chaplain & governor of St A for some months.

Was St Augustine’s aware of this? How is a school chaplaincy consistent with restricted ministry of a monk put in place because of concerns for the safety of children?

There is the fact that Lord Carlile’s review made no new recommendations concerning safeguarding at the school. he merely repeated recommendations previously made by the ISI and a previous review commissioned by the Abbey

Why? Did Carlile think safeguarding was now adequate? If so on the basis of what knowledge or expertise in the subject did he reach that conclusion?

In 2009 when all this first started coming to light, St Benedict’s school safeguarding policy was one long excuse for never reporting anything to anybody. Why did it get into that state, and why did it take years to reform it so that all concerns are reported to the authorities?

CourtNewsUK‏ @CourtNewsUK

Soper is unrepentant and claims he has suffered a ‘serious miscarriage of justice’.

Ex-priest Laurence Soper jailed for sexually abusing boys

21 Dec 2017

An ex-Catholic priest who abused boys at a London school in the 1970s and 1980s has been jailed for 18 years.

Laurence Soper, 74, fled to Kosovo with £182,000 from the Vatican bank in a bid to avoid prosecution for abusing boys at the independent St Benedict’s School, in Ealing, where he taught.

He was extradited to face 19 charges of indecent and serious sexual assault against 10 former pupils.

He is the fourth man to be convicted of molesting children at the school.

Sentencing, Judge Anthony Bate said Soper’s conduct was “the most appalling breach of trust” and he had “subverted the rules of the Benedictine order and teachings of the Catholic Church”.

He said the former abbot and headmaster’s life would now be “overshadowed by the proven catalogue of vile abuse”.

An Old Bailey jury took 14 hours to find Soper guilty of all charges on 6 December.

Prosecutor Gillian Etherton QC told how the victims were subjected to “sadistic” beatings by Soper for “fake reasons” and on many occasions “with what can only have been a sexual motive”.

The “reasons” included kicking a football in the wrong direction, failing to use double margins and using the wrong staircase.

St Benedict’s apologised unreservedly for the “serious wrongs of the past”.

Soper’s victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were supported by relatives in court when he was sentenced earlier.

One victim suffered from nightmares and flashbacks after the abuse, but chose not to come forward out of fear of more beating, the jury heard during the trial.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42443604

 

Soper was remanded in custody to be sentenced on 19 December.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42257548

Five convicted child sex offenders at one school. That is too many for it to be a coincidence. In time, those in charge of the abbey and the school will have to account for their failure to protect the children in their care. They will have to do so in public under oath, questioned by lawyers at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA). They have been required to provide copies of all relevant documents to the public inquiry. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have already started rehearsing their answers.

One thing that the monks of Ealing will have to explain is how they not only harboured several criminal paedophiles within their ranks, but actually managed to elect a prolific child abuser as their leader. Laurence Soper was of course Abbot of Ealing from 1991 to 2000.

http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/12/laurence-soper-found-guilty-of-abuse.html#comment-form

“It was an amoral and perverted place,”

From the 1950s until well into this century, a succession of paedophiles and sadists were in positions of authority over young boys at St Benedict’s. They enjoyed themselves to the full.

Soper is the fifth teacher from the school to be convicted on charges relating to child abuse. Serious complaints have been made about others. The school was run by the Benedictine monks of Ealing Abbey.

Britain’s Benedictines have an extraordinary record of founding schools and then abusing the children who attend them.

A day after Soper’s conviction it was revealed that Aidan Bellenger, a former abbot of Downside Abbey in Somerset, believed that his three predecessors had tolerated child abuse and had sheltered “perverse and criminal” paedophiles at Downside School.

The week before, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse heard of beatings and sexual assault on boys as young as six at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. It has become a bit of a tradition.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-monks-who-stole-my-childhood-wfk5rhk9q

Jonathan West‏ @JonathanWest

I agree, sometimes superiors can be abusers as well. The monks of Ealing Abbey managed to elect an abuser as their Abbot. Fr Laurence Soper will be sentenced on Thursday after being convicted last week of 19 child abuse charges.

https://twitter.com/ColetteAnnesley/status/942082144775688193

Downside head ‘may have burnt evidence of sexual abuse’

16 DEC 2017

Five years ago, the headmaster of a leading public school made trips with a loaded wheelbarrow to a distant part of its grounds, where he made a bonfire. Consumed in its flames were staff files dating back to the early 1980s.

Father Leo Maidlow Davis destroyed files

Father Leo Maidlow Davis destroyed files

Father Leo Maidlow Davis, 63, is today the senior monk at Downside Abbey. In 2012 he was in charge of its neighbouring boarding school. The fire may have destroyed evidence of child sexual abuse. The monk was one of the senior Benedictines who gave evidence during three weeks of hearings that ended yesterday at the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Their focus was two fee-paying schools, Downside, in Somerset, and Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, chosen by the inquiry as a case study in its wider investigation into the Catholic church. Sworn testimony came from monks, former pupils, lay staff, police officers and safeguarding experts. No school bonfire could cleanse the sins they revealed.

In his opening statement a lawyer representing abuse survivors warned of the “beguiling charm” of lauded schools in beautiful surroundings, where robed monks invited and received a high degree of trust. Such institutions promised “a Harry Potter world” that hid, in the words of a former Downside abbot, a “heart of darkness”.

At Ampleforth, about 40 monks and teachers have been accused of sexually abusing children since the 1960s. When police investigated sex offences at Downside in 2010, it emerged that “historic allegations and concerns” had been raised about 16 of its 23 monks.

The inquiry heard of a locked basement room at Downside, used by monks to watch personal videos. It learnt of brown envelopes containing allegations against monks that were locked in the abbot’s safe. Victims described childhood ordeals. Naked boys were taken into monks’ beds. Some were abused so often that it became routine. It was a world in which paedophiles flourished.

That there were child sex crimes at boarding schools is no secret. What shocked observers were the measures taken by Benedictine leaders to protect child abusers. From the Children Act 1989 onwards, the “paramountcy principle” has been central to safeguarding: the welfare of a child must be the primary consideration. The inquiry heard that when a Benedictine was accused of sex abuse it was often the monk’s welfare that took priority.

Each Benedictine monastery is self-governing, headed by an abbot who, within its grounds, holds the place of Christ. Father Timothy Wright, abbot of Ampleforth from 1997 to 2005, wrote in a letter in 2003 that for monastic brethren the abbot was a “trusted confidante”. Father Timothy’s relationship with police and social services was described by his successor, Father Cuthbert Madden, as “very uneasy, if not profoundly secretive”.

Father Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard, abbot of Downside from 1990 to 1998, was asked to whom the abbot was answerable. “Apart from the Almighty, not a lot,” he said, explaining that abbots since medieval times have enjoyed “more or less the status of bishops within their own territory”, which was “a sort of exempt enclave”.

Father Charles, 76, was among three Downside abbots accused by Father Aidan Bellenger, in a private letter, of tolerating child abuse. Father Aidan, abbot from 2006 to 2014, said his predecessors “protected and encouraged” paedophile monks.

Wrongdoers at both schools, including Father Anselm Hurt, brother of the late actor John Hurt, were quietly moved between Benedictine monasteries and parishes.

Reference was made to instructions from Rome to destroy documents that were damaging to priests. Father Leo insisted that his decision to make a bonfire of Downside’s staff files was prompted by a desire to “get rid of unnecessary old material”. He accepted that the files should, under safeguarding requirements, have been kept for 70 years, conceding that he may have unintentionally destroyed information about child abuse.

Richard Scorer, a child abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon who represents 29 survivors of Benedictine abuse, said the hearings exposed an organisation “pervaded by casual disregard for the most basic norms of child protection”.

The inquiry is due to produce an interim report next year.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/downside-head-may-have-burnt-evidence-of-sexual-abuse-qm75khgm9

Ampleforth in Charity Commission takeover amid concerns of its management of sex abuse allegations

Ampleforth Abbey has been stripped of responsibility for pupil welfare by the Charity Commission amid concerns about its management of sex abuse allegations.

The Commission has removed responsibility for safeguarding matters from trustees at the prestigious boarding school as it said it had not improved its policies enough since an inquiry into the charity following allegations of sexual abuse was launched in 2016.

It said it had taken action “as a result of continued concerns about the extent to which current safeguarding risks to pupils at the schools run by the charities are being adequately managed”. 

The Commission opened inquiries into Ampleforth Abbey and the St Laurence Education Trust in November 2016 following revelations that alleged sexual abuse at the school had been covered up. 

Ampleforth Abbey runs a 200-year-old religious community on the same site as Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, which is run by the St Laurence Education Trust. St Laurence also runs prep school St Martin’s Ampleforth, which announced its closure earlier this year.

Last year the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard that allegations of sexual abuse had been made against 40 monks and teachers who had previously lived or worked at the Catholic boarding school and religious community. 

Emma Moody, a specialist charity lawyer at Womble Bond Dickinson, has now been appointed as interim manager of both charities.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/03/ampleforth-charity-commission-takeover-amid-concerns-management/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

Dr Whitehead, current head of provide evidence to . He was educated at Stonyhurst (Jesuit). Other than a spell at Radley, he has taught exclusively in Benedictine settings

Child abuse ‘tolerated’ and ‘indirectly encouraged’ by former Downside Abbey abbots

12 December 2017

‘The heart of darkness in the [Downside] community is the issue of child abuse, which was tolerated by all my predecessors as abbot’

Downside Abbey “tolerated” and “indirectly encouraged” child abuse by protecting monks who sexually abused children, a former abbot has claimed.

Aidan Bellenger, who retired as Abbot in 2014, accused his three predecessors of tolerating child abuse in letters read to the inquiry. He also alleged that the Somerset monastery still harbours paedophiles, raising questions about the behaviour of three monks.

The letters were also sent to the chairman of the Abbey’s board of governors, Father Leo Maidlow Davis last year. The current headmaster, Dr James Whitehead, told the inquiry he was shown the letters in August 2017.

“It is a very serious concern that he’s raising here, potentially, that these abbots may have actually encouraged paedophilia,” he told the inquiry.

Their contents were disclosed on the eighth day of a three-week hearing on the English Benedictine Congregation as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

“At the heart of darkness in the [Downside] community is the issue of child abuse, which was tolerated by all my predecessors as abbot,” wrote Bellenger.

Image result for "Richard Yeo" + PRINCE

Richard Yeo (left)

Father Richard Yeo

Among the former abbots named by Bellenger, is Father Richard Yeo, abbot from 1998 until 2006. Bellenger said he “should have known better” and accused him of trying to protect two monks, Father Richard White (known as Father Nicholas) and Father Desmond O’Keefe, who were subsequently jailed for sexual offences. White was sentenced to five years in prison in 2012 for sexually assaulting boys in the 1980s. O’Keefe was jailed in 2004 for downloading more than12,000 pornographic images of children from the Internet.

“Neither was penitent. Both were protected and indirectly encouraged by their abbots, John [Roberts], Charles [Fitzgerald-Lombard] and Richard [Yeo],” he added.

The letters also describe a monk, who is still at Downside, to be guilty of “perverse and criminal” activities. Two others, he said, were “open to allegations of paedophilia.”

The IICSA hearing on the English Benedictine Congregation is expected to conclude on Friday

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8232/0/child-abuse-tolerated-and-indirectly-encouraged-by-former-downside-abbey-abbots-

At about the time Yeo was elected Abbot of Downside in 1998, White was permitted to return from Fort Augustus. White continued to live at Downside until his arrest in 2010. For eight of the twelve intervening years, Yeo was his Abbot.

Of course, as Abbot, Yeo had access to the records of his predecessors. So he would have been fully aware of the abuse that White had admitted to before being kicked north, and it is for this reason that White was kept on “restricted ministry”.

So Yeo must be regarded as a long-term participant in the cover-up of abuse. He said in the that the cover-up “is unacceptable, I’m not defending that.” But he joined in that unacceptable action.

The Catholic Church’s commitment to safeguarding can be judged by the fact that Yeo was one of the participants in the Cumberlege Commission, and was appointed to carry out the Apostolic Visitation to Ealing Abbey.

http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/08/abbot-president-richard-yeo.html

Richard Scorer‏ @Richard_Scorer

More extraordinary evidence at : Richard Yeo, until recently President of the Benedictines, admits that during his Presidency sex offenders were knowingly appointed as school governors and had input into safeguarding

Dom Richard Yeo is asked about F65 who is alleged to have abused a boy of 16. F65 thereafter became a Governor, and F77 a Trustee.

Another revelation at today: Richard Yeo, until recently President of the Benedictines, appointed a known sex abuser as his secretary. Unclear what access this man might have had to sensitive files.

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/3553/view/12%20December%202017%20Roman%20Catholic%20Church%20Public%20Hearing%20Transcript.pdf

 

 

Father Yeo was a member of the Cumberlege Commission into protecting children in the Catholic Church.

Rt Rev Richard Yeo

Father Yeo was a member of the Cumberlege Commission. as was

Baroness Butler-Sloss
Baroness Butler-Sloss (Vice Chair)

http://www.cumberlegecommission.org.uk/

He was Abbot of Downside from 1998 to 2006 having been secretary to the Abbot Primate of the international Benedictine Confederation.

The monk is also one of three senior clerics on a committee which oversees the management of the Sant’ Anselmo, the Benedictine university in Rome.

The university’s treasurer was convicted paedophile Father Laurence Soper

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/benedictine-head-offers-resignation-from-inquiry-into-sex-abuse-of-pupils-vgdwxc7dnj8

Father Richard Yeo was accused by Aidan Bellenger of hiding abuse
Father Richard Yeo was accused by Aidan Bellenger of hiding abuse

Child abuse ‘was encouraged by school’s abbots’ at Downside Abbey, Somerset

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/child-abuse-was-encouraged-by-schools-abbots-at-downside-abbey-somerset-009z9ddlg

Paul‏ @Oatcake1967

Former HK Governor Lord Chris Patten is George Pell’s spin doctor

LORD PATTEN OF BARNES is Cardinal George Pell’s covert personal media advisor, head of his “black ops” propaganda unit and chief strategist of damage control.

Independent Australia has been informed that Patten owes Pell his job and felt obliged to respond to Pell’s plea for help after a series of public relations blunders and manoeuvres scripted in Rome and Australia backfired on the increasingly beleaguered Cardinal.

Further, IA is aware that some Vatican and Australian communications personnel have become increasingly disaffected with what they interpret as Pell’s disingenuous conduct, and his continuing lack of duty of care and compassion for victims/survivors.

As well, there is also some antipathy between Pell’s Roman staff and the office of the Archdiocese of Sydney whom, we are told, are getting fed up with being on call 24/7 and acceding to the demands of the autocratic Pell and his various acolytes.

Pell apparently still treats Sydney HQ as his own turf.

PATTEN RECRUITED BY PELL FOR HOLY SEE

In July 2014, the erudite and personable Patten was made president of the Vatican’s extensive media and communications divisions, charged with overhauling all print and electronic matters and to usher the Vatican into the digital age.

Much to the ire of many, Patten was recruited in a phone call “out of the blue” by George Pell, but why was the Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy now lording it over the Vatican’s communications unit and hiring staff, and overruling incumbent administrators ?

On the surface, Patten’s appointment was ostensibly to cut costs but it was enough to ruffle the feathers of angels.

In response to an earlier report on the Vatican’s media and communications by consultants McKinsey & Company – famous for their Anil Kumar and Rajat K.Gupta insider trader scandals – to overhaul media, Patten was eventually appointed and now oversees a committee that includes former Singapore Finance Minister, George Yeo.

http://linkis.com/independentaustralia.net/L9yst

Dame Alun Roberts

 Ealing1

Mmmh! Rock and Soper both had strong ties to both Chris Patten and the Balkans.

Ealing2

Chris Patten & Laurence (Andrew) Soper born within a year of each other, were students at St Benedict’s at the same time. They go way back…

Ealing3

Laurence Soper was the former Chaplain at Harrow School from 1981 to 1991. Harrow, Sedbergh and Durham schools were all raided in the late 1990s during a nationwide investigation into an alleged paedophile network of teachers at six leading public schools.

Ealing4

Former Harrow School headmaster Ian Beer said Ball was “almost saintly” and had shown a “remarkable influence for the good with the young”. Ian Beer sent boys from all three schools he worked in (Harrow, Lancing and Ellesmere) to Peter Ball.

Ealing5

According to Headmaster Ian Beer, in his letter of support for the paedophile Peter Ball, pupils flocked to Ball for confidential help and advice. Harrow hosted young people from Bishop Peter Ball’s scheme in Sussex Ian Beer was an old chum of Denis Thatcher.

Ealing6

Richard Yeo, until recently President of the Benedictines, admitted that during his Presidency sex offenders were knowingly appointed as school governors and had input into safeguarding!

Ealing7

Father Yeo was a member of the Cumberlege Commission into protecting children in the Catholic Church. He was Abbot of Downside from 1998 to 2006 having been secretary to the Abbot Primate of the international Benedictine Confederation.

Ealing8

And, wait for it, Vice Chair of Cumberlege was the broken chair Theresa May tried to put in charge of IICSA, the woman who loved the church so dearly she would always put it before victims, the one and only Sloshed Butler:


Ealing9

And, of course, Bishop Ball wouldn’t be a ‘proper’ paedophile if he weren’t connected to the PaedoProtector General …

Ealing10

 In fact, Bishop Bollox was a founder member of the Thatcher Foundation set up by the former prime minister. Say no more!

Ealing11
IICSA has now ascertained that Richard Yeo appointed a known sex abuser as his secretary. They certainly keep it in the family!

 


St Benedict’s school Ealing

Another victim said he believed Maestri was running a paedophile ring at the school.

‘When I speak of a paedophile ring, [I say] that there were school masters, lay or clerical, who were or have been convicted of the sexual abuse of children,’ he explained.

‘Therefore it’s reasonable to believe that something like a paedophile ring was operating at St Benedict’s school.

‘I believe that the Benedictine Order should answer for the serial abuse that has gone on in its educational establishments for the last few decades.’

The conviction comes a year after the school’s former deputy head Peter Allott was jailed for child pornography’

His defence barrister Jane Humphryes, QC, suggested his accusers were bitter ‘professional victims’ and fantasists and told one he was determined to ‘squash’ St Benedict’s and become a core participant in the IICSA.

Soper has been expelled from the monastery of St Benedict of Ealing for ‘scandalous behaviour’ but is still a priest.

 

It would be interesting to get some background on Sopers legal team and who was paying for it.

http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/12/laurence-soper-found-guilty-of-abuse.html#comment-form

Andreas Baader‏ @stop1984

Alexis Jay, will propose that no evidence be called about decades of abuse of pupils at Ealing Abbey and its adjoining independent school, St Benedict’.

May.

Dame Alun Robert

Why? Cui bono?

Soper was on first name terms with Cardinal (Basil) Hume and knew Lord Patten, who worked on the advisory panel while he was Abbot, the court heard.

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Former-abbot-found-guilty-of-abusing-boys-at-Catholic-school

Savile links to Hume & Patten & Royal family

Image result for basil hume and savile

Cardinal Basil Hume was friends with Jimmy Savile

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/9596850/Sir-Jimmy-Savile-causes-anguish-at-the-Athenaeum.html

Image result for chris patten and prince charles

Chris Patten is friends with Prince Charles – also a friend of Jimmy Savile

link

Dame Alun Roberts‏ @ciabaudo

Funny bloke this Patten: Dishes out £1000s unnecessarily to McA (Lord McAlpine) and now threatens MP with litigation for searching for truth!

Lord Patten warns Tory MP over Savile scandal evidence

Lord Patten warns Tory MP he risks legal action if he publishes evidence calling into question BBC’s handling of Jimmy Savile scandal

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/10509720/Lord-Patten-warns-Tory-MP-over-Savile-scandal-evidence.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20131124064254/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100246954/lord-patten-must-find-out-the-truth-about-jimmy-savile-mark-thompson-and-the-pollard-review/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/bbc-mcalpine-payout_n_2139601.html

Image result for "Lord Alastair McCorquodale" + "harrow"

Lord Patten must find out the truth about Jimmy Savile, Mark Thompson and the Pollard Review

 

The cover-ups, scandals and payoffs of Lord Patten’s reign

Lord Patten forced to step down early after presiding over period of unprecedented crisis at the BBC dominated by Savile, McAlpine and Entwistle

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10812299/The-cover-ups-scandals-and-payoffs-of-Lord-Pattens-reign.html

 

The BBC Trust denied that chairman Lord Patten had threatened Tory MP Rob Wilson with legal action if he released the tape

The BBC Trust denied that chairman Lord Patten had threatened Tory MP Rob Wilson with legal action if he released the tape

Image result for chris patten and hrh prince charles

Image result for savile and prince charles

Chris Patten who was part of BBC Savile cover-up

link

Chris Patten and Soper go way back

Chris Patten and Andrew Soper were students at St Benedict’s at the same time.

Soper born 1943:

Education St Benedict’s Sch Ealing, St Benet’s Hall Oxford, Collegio Sant Anselmo Rome (STL, STD), St Mary’s Coll Twickenham (PGCE)
Chris Patten born 1944 attended St Benedict’s

Patten accused of a cover-up on BBC Savile probe blunder: Chairman knew of a tape where inquiry author admit he had made a ‘mistake’

  • Nick Pollard headed inquiry into why Newsnight dropped Savile report
  • In taped phone call he says director-general knew of Savile accusations
  • Mark Thompson denies being told about planned Newsnight inquiry

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521976/BBC-chairman-Chris-Patten-Patten-accused-cover-BBC-Savile-probe-blunder.html

Patrick Rock found guilty of having child abuse images on his computer was an aide to Chris Patten

Andrew Soper, 74, fled to Kosovo with £182,000 from the Vatican bank in an attempt to avoid prosecution

London priest who fled to Kosovo found guilty of abusing schoolboys

Andrew Soper convicted of sexually abusing pupils at St Benedict’s school in Ealing during 1970s and 80s

6 December 2017

A former abbot who fled to Kosovo to escape justice has been convicted of abusing 10 boys at a Catholic-run school in London during the 1970s and 80s.

Andrew Soper, 74, formerly known as Father Laurence Soper, was found guilty of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences after a lengthy trial at the Old Bailey.

Soper sexually abused pupils while he was master in charge of discipline at St Benedict’s school in Ealing, west London. He would assault them after subjecting them to corporal punishment using a cane.

The first victim contacted police in 2004 after Soper left his role as abbot of Ealing Abbey and moved to the Benedictine order’s headquarters in Rome.

The former pupil was initially told by officers there was insufficient evidence.

Soper was later interviewed at Heathrow police station in 2010 and subsequently fled to Kosovo while on police bail the following year.

He was arrested at Luton airport in August 2016 after being deported by the Kosovan authorities and returned to the UK.

Tetteh Turkson, a senior Crown Prosecution Service lawyer involved in the case, said: “Soper used his position as a teacher and as a priest to abuse children for his own sexual gratification.

“He compounded this by trying to evade justice and fleeing to Kosovo in order to go into hiding. The victims’ bravery in coming forward and giving evidence has seen him convicted of these serious offences.”

A statement on behalf of the fee-paying independent school was issued by Alex Carlile QC after the conviction. He said: “St Benedict’s school is deeply concerned for, and distressed by, the ordeals faced by the victims of Laurence Soper, who have lived with the pain of his activities for so long.

“The school apologises unreservedly for the serious wrongs of the past. The school regrets that Soper did not have the courage to plead guilty.

“The result has been that innocent victims, whom he abused when they were boys in the school, were compelled to give evidence. They were subjected to cross-examination about matters in relation to which they were both helpless and innocent.

“The fact that these matters took place many years ago does not mitigate the pain and injustice endured by them.” The statement said the school was now “a completely different institution”.

Lord Carlile added: “The tough lessons of the past have been learned, and the errors and crimes of the past are in the daily consciousness and conscience of the school management … St Benedict’s cannot and will never forget Soper’s crimes. Nevertheless they are proud of the school as it now is, and as confident as ever they can be that everything is being done to ensure that such events cannot recur.”

The school, which charges fees of about £5,000 a term, counts the former Conservative chair Lord Patten and entertainer Julian Clary among its alumni.

Gillian Etherton QC, who led the prosecution, told the court victims were subjected to sadistic beatings by Soper for “fake reasons”.

They included kicking a football “in the wrong direction”, “failing to use double margins”, and “using the wrong staircase”, leading to a caning and a sexual assault, she said.

“It is the prosecution case that ‘punishments’ as described by the complainants in this case were carried out by Soper in entirely inappropriate ways and circumstances and, on many occasions, with what can only have been sexual motive,” Etherton added.

Many of his victims have experienced flashbacks and nightmares. During the trial Soper denied using the cane as a ruse to abuse boys.

The judge, Anthony Bate, remanded Soper in custody to be sentenced on 19 December. He was convicted of two counts of buggery, two counts of indecency with a child and 15 counts of indecent assault.

Soper was found guilty of buggery, contrary to section 12(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, since the offence took place when that act was in force. The offence was changed from buggery to rape by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/06/london-priest-kosovo-found-guilty-abusing-schoolboys-andrew-soper-st-benedict-school

A “sadistic” monk who was head of a top Catholic school was convicted yesterday of molesting ten pupils in a campaign of abuse during the 1970s and 1980s that was exposed by The Times.

Andrew Soper, known as Father Laurence, is thought to be the most senior Catholic priest to be convicted of sex crimes in the UK. He withdrew £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and fled to Kosovo to avoid prosecution for attacking boys at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London.

Soper, the former abbot of Ealing Abbey, which adjoins the school, spent five years abroad before he was extradited. A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for 14 hours before finding him guilty of 19 charges of indecent assault and buggery between 1975 and 1982.

Soper, 74, who is likely to die in jail, is the fourth staff member of St Benedict’s to be convicted of indecent assault and the school apologised unreservedly last night for the “serious wrongs of the past”.

The 60-year history of abuse at the school was exposed by The Times and a report by an independent barrister concluded in 2011 that there had been a “lengthy and cumulative failure” by monks to protect children in their care.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) will hold hearings into one of the worst scandals to afflict the Catholic church in Britain.

The first of Soper’s victims to come forward last night told of his relief that justice had finally been served. The man, who came forward in 2004 but was initially told by police there was insufficient evidence, told The Times: “He will never see outside a cell again and that is where he deserves to be. He ruined my life . . . finally I am free.”

Soper was headmaster and senior priest at the school. A series of accusations were made against him after he resigned as abbot in 2000 and went to live at the Benedictine headquarters at the Collegio Sant’Anselmo, Rome. He returned to Britain to be interviewed by police about the claims in 2004, 2009 and 2010, and was allowed to go back to Rome on bail until 2011. Seven days before he was due to attend a police station in the UK, he flew to Kosovo. He was highly regarded as a scholar in the Vatican and his views on the Catholic church were widely sought. Soper has been expelled from the monastery of St Benedict at Ealing but is still a priest.

The Old Bailey was told that he got a sexual thrill from caning young boys and “cunningly” used corporal punishment as an excuse to pull down their trousers. He pulled up his robes to rape one 12-year-old pupil over a desk in his office and warned the boy he could be expelled if he ever told his parents. Detective Superintendent Ang Scott, from the Metropolitan Police, said that Soper was a “manipulative” offender who used his position to carry out “punishments” with a sexual motive.

His ten victims, who have since been plagued by mental health problems, were initially afraid to speak out because their families viewed Catholic priests with “deep respect”. Judge Anthony Bate remanded Soper in custody to be sentenced on December 19.

Soper is the latest in a string of men to face allegations relating to their work at St Benedict’s, which counts Lord Patten of Barnes, the former Conservative chairman, and Julian Clary, the entertainer, among its alumni.

In 2009, Father David Pearce, 75, nicknamed the “devil in a dog collar”, was jailed after he admitted 11 charges of indecent assault dating back to 1975. Between 2003 and 2009, John Maestri, 78, of Chatham in Kent, admitted five indecent assaults against children at St Benedict’s in the 1970s and 1980s and was jailed. In 2010, John Skelton was convicted of indecent assaults against two complainants said to have occurred in 1983 at St Benedict’s.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/andrew-soper-father-laurence-former-abbot-of-ealing-abbey-st-benedict-s-school-guilty-of-raping-boys-qr333lzv2

Father Anthony Gee (the former headmaster of St Benedict’s) faced accusations of abuse, but no further action was taken although civil action was brought against him, jurors were told.

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Former-abbot-found-guilty-of-abusing-boys-at-Catholic-school

The former pupil said that in his final O level year he told the headmaster, Father Anthony Gee, that he did not want to stay at the school for his A levels, explaining: “I do not want to be taught by perverts masquerading as teachers.”

He said Father Gee became angry at his criticism of “good teachers and good holy men” and “threatened me with eternal hell fire and damnation”.

The headmaster threatened to “destroy” the reputation of his grandfather and his father within the church and wider society,” he claimed.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/court-hears-pupils-story-of-abuse-at-leading-catholic-school-flkkfss5k8b

http://scepticalthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/07/

https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/03/31/15/32B383F100000578-0-image-a-16_1459433688722.jpg

Few of these recent news articles mention  St Benedict’s, paedophile deputy head Peter Allott

The judge: ‘It was at the drug parties that you became aware of, and addicted to, indecent images of children. I use the phrase of a paedophile ring, that’s precisely what that was.

…blew £600 a week on paedophile drug parties is jailed for horrific stash of porn images featuring children as young as two

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3575806/Cambridge-educated-deputy-head-15-000-year-Catholic-private-school-blew-600-week-paedophile-drug-parties-jailed-horrific-stash-porn-images-featuring-children-young-two.html

Andreas Baader‏ @stop1984

Cardinal Hume and a former Downside Abbey headmaster ‘did nothing at all’ after paraplegic woman informed them of alleged sex abuse, national inquiry told

In 1985, the witness visited Cardinal Basil Hume in Archbishop’s House in London and told him about the alleged abuse

Cardinal Basil Hume and a former Downside Abbey headmaster “did nothing at all” after a paraplegic woman informed them that she had been sexually abused by a Benedictine monk from the Abbey over several years, the national inquiry into child abuse has heard.

On the eighth day of a three-week hearing on the English Benedictine Congregation as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the inquiry heard from a witness allegedly abused by a chaplain from Downside Abbey in Somerset.

The witness told the inquiry that she had met the chaplain – referred to as F80 – on a pilgrimage at Lourdes in 1984 when she was 17 years old. She was confined to a wheel-chair and told the inquiry that at that time she felt “suicidal.”

In a statement read to the inquiry, the witness described how, over the following two years, F80 visited her in her parent’s home where he sexually abused her. 

“F80 groomed and manipulated me and my emotions and used my fear of others to keep my silence,” she said.

In early 1985, the witness visited Cardinal Basil Hume in Archbishop’s House in London and told him about the alleged abuse.

The witness said Cardinal Hume was “very concerned that I was so distressed” and suggested she talk to the headmaster of Downside Abbey, Father Dom Philip Jebb.

The witness explained to the inquiry that she had told Father Philip who she said was “very sorry and very sympathetic” but that he remained convinced that the alleged abuser should not know that he – Father Philip – knew about the abuse.

The witness said she spoke to Father Philip about the abuse “again and again and again.”

“It was like being passed backwards and forwards between Basil Hume and Philip Jebb,” she told the inquiry.

“I believe that Basil Hume and Father Philip Jebb had a conversation about what was going on,” she added.

Cardinal Hume visited the alleged abuser at one stage and told him to stop, the witness said. However, after a short period the abuse continued.

The witness told the inquiry she went back to Cardinal Hume and told him the abuse was continuing. Again Cardinal Hume told her to approach the headmaster: “and backwards and forwards I went,” she said.

The witness told the inquiry she continued to see Cardinal Hume about the alleged abuse up until he died in 1999.

In June 2007, the witness approached the then Abbot, Aidan Bellenger, and told him about the abuse. F80 was still teaching at the school. Abbot Aidan confronted F80, but did not take any action, the witness told the inquiry.

Eventually in 2010, Abbot Aidan approached Clifton Diocese’s safeguarding team, after which police became involved in the case, the witness told the inquiry.

On the opening day of the IICSA inquiry, a spokeswoman from Downside Abbey made a statement on behalf of the Abbey expressing regret for past abuses.

Kate Gallafent QC, for the English Benedictine Congregation, said that as the number of children abused had become apparent, there had been a sense of shame and “intense sadness at the anguish caused to so many people”.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8222/0/cardinal-hume-and-a-former-downside-abbey-headmaster-did-nothing-at-all-after-paraplegic-woman-informed-them-of-alleged-sex-abuse-national-inquiry-told

Child abuse ‘was encouraged by school’s abbots’ at Downside Abbey, Somerset

Downside Abbey monks sheltered child sex offenders, a former abott says

Downside Abbey monks sheltered child sex offenders, a former abott says

A renowned Roman Catholic school hid a “heart of darkness” in which monks who sexually abused children were protected and indirectly encouraged by their superiors, its former abbot has claimed.

Aidan Bellenger accused his three predecessors at Downside Abbey of tolerating child abuse. He also alleged that the monastery in Somerset, which owns and runs an adjoining public school, still sheltered paedophiles.

Father Richard Yeo was accused by Aidan Bellenger of hiding abuse
Father Richard Yeo was accused by Aidan Bellenger of hiding abuse

One monk who is still at Downside was said by the former abbot to be guilty of “perverse and criminal” activities; two more were “open to allegations of paedophilia”. Another monk, who is no longer at the monastery, was accused of “monstrous” behaviour, including “the rape case”.

Among the former abbots said by Dr Bellenger to have sheltered child sex offenders between 1974 and 2006 is Father Richard Yeo, until recently Britain’s most senior Benedictine monk.

Father Richard, Downside abbot from 1998 to 2006, stood down as abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation in August.

The claims about the monastery were made in letters sent last year by Dr Bellenger to Father Leo Maidlow Davis, the school’s present chairman of governors. Their contents were disclosed yesterday at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is investigating past offences at Downside and another leading Benedictine school, Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

James Whitehead criticised the governance of Downside, where he is headmaster
James Whitehead criticised the governance of Downside, where he is headmaster

The inquiry also heard damning criticism of the Benedictine “culture of monastic superiority” from James Whitehead, Downside’s headmaster.

Alumni of the school, which has 380 pupils and where annual boarding fees are £32,700, have included the journalist Auberon Waugh, the Mad Men actor Jared Harris and the former England rugby player Simon Halliday.

In his letters Dr Bellenger, the monastery’s abbot for eight years until 2014, referred to Father Richard White, known as Father Nicholas, who was jailed for five years in 2012 for gross indecency and indecent assault against pupils in the 1980s. He also mentioned Father Dunstan O’Keefe, who was convicted of performing a sex act in a car outside a primary school, and later jailed for possession of child abuse images.

Dr Aidan Bellenger
Dr Aidan Bellenger

Dr Bellenger wrote: “At the heart of darkness in the [Downside] community is the issue of child abuse which was tolerated by all my predecessors as abbot.” He said he was “particularly concerned that Richard [Yeo], who should have known better, attempted to protect Nicholas and Dunstan when he should have been protecting their victims”. He added: “Neither was penitent. Both were protected and indirectly encouraged by their abbots, John [Roberts], Charles [Fitzgerald-Lombard] and Richard [Yeo].”

The inquiry was told that Father Leo did not reveal the existence of the letters until August this year, when he informed Dr Whitehead.

Dr Whitehead, who is due to leave Downside next year, said that the allegations potentially raised “very serious concerns that those abbots may have actually encouraged paedophilia”. He criticised the Benedictines’ “ineffectiveness of governance”, saying that a “fundamental problem” was that “members of the monastic community aren’t accountable to anyone unless they commit a criminal offence”.

The inquiry has been told that the “abbeys and schools are proud of the tradition of academic excellence and spiritual values” that they offer. It was also told that the Benedictine congregation “expresses profound shame that any child has been the victim of sexual abuse whilst in the care of the schools connected with its abbeys”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/child-abuse-was-encouraged-by-schools-abbots-at-downside-abbey-somerset-009z9ddlg

Abbots at £32,000-a-year Roman Catholic School ‘encouraged monks to abuse children while staff there are STILL sheltering paedophiles’

  • Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is examining abuse in schools
  • Letters from former abbot of catholic school tell of his concerns about abuse
  • In a letter last year, he said he feared the school was still sheltering a paedophile
  • Inquiry heard claims member of staff at school abused girl in a wheelchair

A Catholic school attached to a monastery sheltered child sex offenders and tolerated abuse, its former abbot claimed.

Downside Abbey in Somerset is being examined by Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse after two of its monks were jailed for child sex offences.

Letters from the abbey’s former abbot, Aidan Bellenger, have now revealed his fears that ‘the issue of child abuse was tolerated by all my predecessors as abbot’.

In a letter sent last year, he said of two monks who had been imprisoned over abuse: ‘Neither was penitent. Both were protected (and implicitly) encouraged by their abbots.’

He said of two other monks: ‘[They] avoided trial, but their offences (more than allegations) remain on record.’

His letter including a warning that a monk who still lives at Downside had taken part in ‘perverse and criminal’ activities.

Two others he said ‘were open to allegations of “paedophilia”‘, adding: ‘Small fry perhaps but in outside perceptions they would be in trouble.’

He warned: ‘More “historic” cases will emerge’, listing five other names, which have been redacted by the inquiry.

Earlier this week, the inquiry heard from a woman who said she was abused by a member of the staff at the school in the 1980s, when she was a wheelchair- bound teenager.

Two monks from the Abbey have previously been jailed for child sex offences.

Monk Richard White, 66, was handed a five-year sentence in 2012 after abusing two boys more than two decades ago, including a 12-year-old he paid 50p to hush up.

His court hearing was told that, instead of contacting the police after allegations were raised, the then abbot of the monastery simply stopped White from teaching younger students.

In 2004, Desmond O’Keefe, another former priest from the abbey, was jailed for downloading 12,000 children sex abuse images.

Dr Bellenger, who was abbot for eight years until 2014, has previously apologised to all former pupils affected by abuse.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is currently examining the prevalence of paedophilia among Benedictine monks and failures to protect young people.

It is focusing on offenders who targeted children at two famous Catholic public schools, Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset, over many decades.

But although numerous inquiries have exposed the problem of child abuse within church institutions and a string of offenders have been convicted, safety concerns are said to remain.

Counsel to the inquiry Riel Karmy-Jones QC told a hearing last month the recorded allegations ‘go back many years… and they continue into the present day’.

She added: ‘In considering the evidence and assessing the extent of abuse, it must be remembered that we have to rely on that which has been reported, and the extent and accuracy with which those reports have been recorded, if at all.

‘In that time we have moved from scant records, little more than a handwritten notes on scraps of paper being kept, to electronic records. So some of the records that remain are old and illegible, some incomplete, some lost or destroyed.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5159157/Abbots-Roman-Catholic-School-sheltered-paedophiles.html

Andrew Soper trial: Jury deliberating case of abbot accused of abusing boys at Ealing school

The jury is out after a two-month trial into alleged sexual abuse at St Benedict’s School, Ealing

30 Nov 2017

A former abbot at Ealing Abbey accused of abusing boys while working at a school in Ealing is awaiting the verdict in his trial at the Old Bailey.

Andrew Soper was headmaster and senior priest at St Benedict’s School, a fee-paying independent school in Ealing, and he stands accused of abusing 10 boys there during the 1970s and 80s.

Now aged 74, Mr Soper denies 19 offences of indecent assault and buggery against the boys, who claim they were subjected to sexual touching and beatings with a cane.

Prosecutors said the school had a history of “both violence and sexual abuse” by the adults in charge, describing it as “sadly prevalent”.

A former pupil accused the school of covering up covering up “serial abuse” by teachers and priests over the past six decades in his testimony.

Jurors heard Father David Pearce, a former headmaster at the school, and John Maestri, a former maths teacher, have previously been prosecuted for child abuse crimes there.

A pupil told the court that he believed Maestri ran a paedophile ring at the school, but defence lawyer Jane Humphreys QC accused the man of concocting the stories to get back at school masters who had caned him.

“You say Mr Soper caned you and other masters did as well. You said that you want to bring the Benedictine order to its knees,” said the barrister.

The victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the beatings were given for “fake reasons” such as kicking a football “in the wrong direction”, “failing to use double margins” and “using the staircase”, the Old Bailey heard.

During his defence, Mr Soper told jurors incidents had been interpreted in a “sexual way” against a “tsunami of media attention as I am named fairly frequently”.

The abbot was extradited from Kosovo for the trial after he fled there from Rome upon learning he was the subject of a Metropolitan Police investigation in 2011.

Explaining why he fled, he blamed “stupidity and cowardice” and told the jury that his life had been ruined by the allegations.

The jury retired to consider the verdicts on Thursday morning following a two-month trial.

 

https://old-bailey.com/old-bailey-cases-of-interest/

T20167474
T20170163
Andrew Charles, Kingston Soper

Nov 24 2017

Details: Trial (Part Heard) – Resume – 10:52
Trial (Part Heard) – Summing Up – 10:59
Trial (Part Heard) – Prosecution Closing Speech – 11:43
Trial (Part Heard) – Case adjourned until 14:00 – 12:55
Trial (Part Heard) – Prosecution Closing Speech – 14:12
Trial (Part Heard) – Case adjourned until 15:40 – 15:28
Trial (Part Heard) – Prosecution Closing Speech – 15:43
Trial (Part Heard) – Case adjourned until 10:00 – 16:03

http://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/crown-court-daily/14/lists/2017-11-24

 IICSA – Ampleforth  Week 1

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/3360/view/Week%201%20timetable%20for%20EBC%20case%20study%20hearing.pdf

Andrew Soper trial: Accused tells jury caning at Ealing school was ‘interpreted in a sexual way’

Former Ealing abbot Andrew Soper claims victims interpreted caning incidents at St Benedict’s school in a “sexual way”

23 NOV 2017

An Ealing priest has blamed a “tsunami” of media attention for almost identical accounts of boys he is accused of sexually abusing at a fee-paying Catholic school.

Former abbot Andrew Soper, 74, allegedly molested 10 pupils during his time as headmaster and senior priest at St Benedict’s School in Ealing in the 1970s and 80s.

Prosecutor Gillian Etherton QC quizzed the defendant on the “extraordinary” similarities between some of the alleged victims’ stories during his trial at the Old Bailey on Wednesday (November 22).

They claimed Soper “searched them for a book under the ruse of patting to touch their bottom” and offered three strokes of the cane instead of six “severe lashes” if they took their trousers and pants down.

The defendant accepted he had checked boys for “padding” and had changed his account to police on “calmer recollection” of events of some 30 years ago.

But he denied bargaining over the cane, saying: “I never gave that sort of an option because I would never give a boy six strokes of the cane, that’s far too much.

“I normally gave two or three.”

He told jurors incidents had been interpreted in a “sexual way” against a “tsunami of media attention as I am named fairly frequently”.

He cited a “backdrop of heavy media attention for the last 10 years” including a blog and “victim” discussion group, documentaries on Channel 4, Channel 5, Panorama, and news articles naming him and the school.

He said: “Against all that you have then got money, of course, which is a great incentive and the more elaborate the story, the more money you get.”

He went on: “I think, if I’m right, that seven out of 10 complainants left St Benedict’s before they completed their education for various reasons and none of them seem to have had, understandably, any love for the school.

“Also I’m associated in the media and public with a number of people who have been accused, and in some cases pleaded guilty, to child abuse in a relatively small school within the same time.”

He denies the 19 alleged offences of indecent assault, indecency with a child, and buggery allegedly committed against 10 boys.

The trial continues.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/andrew-soper-trial-accused-tells-13942552

 

Priest fled UK out of ‘cowardice’ after sexual assault charges

Nov 21 2017

A Roman Catholic priest fled the country out of “cowardice and stupidity” after being accused of abusing young boys, a court has heard.

Laurence Soper, 74, is charged with 19 counts of sexual assault against boys at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he taught.

Mr Soper was returned to the UK in May 2016 from after a five-year police hunt in Kosovo, the Old Bailey heard.

Ten former pupils have made allegations dating back to the 1970s and 80s.

The boys allege they were subjected to rape, sexual touching and beaten with a cane.

Mr Soper was arrested in 2010 and bailed, but failed to return to a London police station in March 2011.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued for him in 2012.

Mr Soper – who is no longer a monk but remains a priest – said his whole life had been “ruined” by the allegations.

He insisted he did not flee to Kosovo because he was guilty.

He said: “My stupidity and cowardice and wishing to bury my head in the sand played a big part.

“If you want to destroy a priest, vicar, anybody, all you have to do is make an accusation up against them.

“Their future is ruined, their character is ruined.”

Mr Soper said he had been beaten with a cane several times when he too was a pupil at St Benedict’s in the 1950s.

It was “not totally uncommon” to hear of boys being caned with “clothes off”, he added.

Mr Soper told jurors, he had caned boys as a teacher but felt “totally different” about the practice now.

He denies all the charges against him, including indecent assault and indecency with a child.

The trial continues.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42073351

 

 

http://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/crown-court-daily/14/lists/2017-11-21

Why is the Charles Howeson trial getting so much more media coverage, than the Laurence Soper trial?


CASES OF INTEREST AT THE OLD BAILEY ON THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17

Court 7 at 10am Trial Continues in the case of Andrew Soper, a Catholic priest, who has denied sexually abusing 10 boys at a west London school in the 1970s and 80s.

Witness number 24 continues

Soper very protected – Minimal coverage of Soper’s trial:

Priests were ‘part of a paedophile network’

19 Oct 2017

A child abuse victim claims a paedophile ring was operating at a Roman Catholic school where a former monk allegedly sexually assaulted schoolboys, a court heard. St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, has covered up ‘serial abuse’ by teachers and priests over the past six decades, according to one of Father Andrew Soper’s former pupils. Soper, 74, a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of a string of sex…

http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/priests-part-paedophile-network/

Anthony John Wixted‏ @TrojanManifesto

Andrew Soper trial: Alleged child abuse victim claims paedophile ring operated from Ealing Catholic school:

Rev Nicolas Stacey must have had links to many people on the Elm
house guest list…..

Dame Alun Roberts‏@ciabado

Interesting read on Social Work Today and Islington connections.

ONE What is it about Islington, that den of iniquity? Here’s an attempt to join a few dots …

TWO Nick Stacey, a Director of Social Services, instructed his staff not to report alleged paedophiles within Kent Social Services.

 

THREE Stacey was very close to Peter Righton. Stacey, formerly a vicar, was based in Maidstone, where Righton also lived for a time.

 

FOUR They cemented their friendship via Social Work Today and were on a steering ctte to train those working with disturbed young people.

FIVE Also in this group of 6 were John Rea Price, Director of Islington for 19 years while every one of its kids’ homes was run by paedos.

SIX When Liz Davies blew the whistle on Islington, Rea Price quickly legged it to become CEO of NCB, also based in Islington.

SEVEN Also close to Righton and Stacey was Chris Andrews, Chair of BASW and another force within SWT alongside Margaret Claire Jervis.

Read here how Andrews rushed to the defence of paedophile Peter Righton:

Chris Andrews, of BASW, described Righton at the time of his arrest as follows: He [Righton] is a highly respected figure within the residential field, particularly working with highly disturbed children. He is very much concerned with therapeutic work in child care’ (cited in Burden and Rose, ‘Porn Squad quiz Child Care Expert’).

EIGHT Margaret Claire Jervis went on to become Barbara Hewson’s close friend and fellow activist in the false allegations campaign.

NINE When Righton was arrested in 1992, Chris Andrews, who spoke for BASW, was one of the first to jump to Righton’s defence.


Andrew Soper trial: Alleged child abuse victim claims paedophile ring operated from Ealing Catholic school

The former pupil of Father Andrew Soper accused St Benedict’s School of covering up “serial abuse”

19 OCT 2017

A child abuse victim claims a paedophile ring was operating at a school in Ealing where a former monk allegedly sexual assaulted young boys, a court heard.

On Thursday (October 19), a former pupil of Father Andrew Soper accused St Benedict’s school of covering up “serial abuse” by teachers and priests over the past six decades.

Soper, a 74-year-old former abbott of Ealing Abbey, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of a string of sex offences – including buggery and indecent assault against 10 schoolboys.

Prosecutors claim sexual abuse and violence against children was widespread at the Roman Catholic school from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Jurors heard Father David Pearce, a former headmaster at the school, and John Maestri, a former maths teacher, have previously been prosecuted for child abuse there.

The court heard from one complainant, who accused Soper of indecently assaulting him twice, who said he believes Maestri ran a paedophile ring at the school.

‘The Benedictine Order should answer for the serial abuse’

The complainant replied: “I believe that the Benedictine Order should answer for the serial abuse that has gone on in its educational establishments for the last few decades.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/andrew-soper-trial-alleged-child-13783458#ICID=sharebar_twitter


Laurence Soper, 74, the abbot of Ealing Abbey from 1991-2000, was headmaster and senior priest at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London.

Former pupil allegedly abused by Ealing priest denies being a ‘professional victim’

The witness was called a fantasist after claiming he was raped and indecently assaulted by Andrew Soper

A former west London pupil – who won a £135,000 settlement after claiming he was sexually abused by a school priest – was accused of being a fantasist on Monday (October 16).

The alleged victim first came forward after claiming he was raped and indecently assaulted by Andrew Soper, 74, at St Benedict’s School in Ealing in the 1970s.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/former-pupil-allegedly-abused-ealing-13768954

‘Fantasist’ – with so many other allegations against Soper? – So why did they give him a massive payout – unless they knew his claims were valid?


Jane Humphryes QC defending Soper also defended Fuggle of Colet Court school

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3068710/Child-sex-images-teacher-faces-jail.html

Anthony Fuggle, ex-Colet Court teacher, sentenced over child pornography

 Colet Court is a junior division of St Paul’s Preparatory School. Alumni include Chancellor George Osborne.

Soper –  is no longer a monk but remains a priest

10 Oct 2017

Roman Catholic priest, 74, ‘withdrew £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and went on the run in Albania after being accused of sexually abusing schoolchildren’

  • Father Laurence Soper, 74, was a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London
  • Soper then skipped bail and flew to Kosovo when he was accused of sex offences
  • It is claimed the Catholic priest caned pupils to give himself a thrill at the school

A Roman Catholic priest withdrew £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and went on the run in Albania after he was accused of sexually abusing schoolchildren in the 1970s and 1980s, a court heard.

Father Laurence Soper, 74, a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London, skipped bail and flew to Kosovo when he was accused of sex offences including buggery and indecent assault on boys under 16, it is said.

Prosecutors say the abuse took place between September 1972 and July 1983 while Soper was headmaster at St Benedict’s School in Ealing.

Soper caned pupils to give himself a thrill at the school, where sexual abuse and violence was allegedly widespread, it is claimed.

One of his alleged victims said children ‘had been targeted by predators and assaulted’ at St Benedict’s and accused the school of a ‘serial cover up’.

A series of accusations were made against Soper after he resigned as abbot and went to live at the Benedictine headquarters at Collegio Sant’Anselmo in Rome, Italy, in 2000.

He flew to the UK to be interviewed by police about the claims in July 2004, June 2009 and September 2010, and was allowed to return to Rome on police bail until 11 March 2011.

But seven days before he was due to attend a police station in the UK, he flew to Kosovo, Albania, with 204,000 euros withdrawn from his Vatican bank account, jurors were told.

Soper, who was then working as general treasurer of the International Benedictine Confederation, claimed he had been paid to study a mystical strand of Islam in the Balkans, the Old Bailey heard.

Gillian Etherton QC, prosecuting, said: ‘As a result of the defendant failing to attend his re-bailed date attempts were made by the police and authorities to locate him.

‘After five-and-a-half years of being wanted by police the defendant was located in Kosovo.

‘A European Arrest warrant was issued for Andrew Soper’s extradition. Eventually the authorities deported the defendant.

‘The defendant was arrested for these offences at Luton Airport coming off a flight from Kosovo on 21 August 2016.

‘He was cautioned and replied: “I vigorously deny these allegations.”‘

She added: ‘You will hear that the defendant is a meticulous man who analyses and plans most things.

‘The prosecution say he carefully organised his leaving of Rome. It was his clear intention to fall below police radar.’

Soper has since been expelled from the monatsery of St Benedict of Ealing for ‘scandalous behvaiour’ but is still a priest, the court heard.

He has been charged with 19 alleged sex offences relating to 10 complainants, including buggery and indecency with a child.

According to charges, he indecently assaulted one boy on a school cycling holiday and anally raped him twice on other occasions.

Soper, who was in charge of discipline at St Benedict’s School while he taught there, is also accused of using caning as ‘a method to rouse and to gain sexual gratification’.

The defendant, described as ‘manipulative’, ‘perverted’ and ‘sadistic’ by various complainants, allegedly kept canes, a cat-o-nine tails whip and a leather strap in his desk.

One former pupil said he was ‘the scariest of the monks there’.

‘He was a disciplinarian and never smiled,’ added the complainant.

Jurors heard the former pupils were told to pull their trousers down while Soper punished them in his headmaster’s room for ‘false reasons’ such as kicking a football in the wrong direction.

The boys were left feeling ‘dirty and ashamed’ after the incidents – but just one of the 10 alleged victims told his parents what had happened.

He claimed his parents, who have since died, didn’t tell the police because ‘priests were much respected’.

Ms Etherton said: ‘A priest or a monk is a person to look up to and hold in deep respect, not someone to challenge or confront.

‘A young boy’s word against that of a priest – you may think it’s little wonder that most of the complainants at the time said nothing.’

One former pupil was paid £135,000 to settle a sex abuse claim against Soper out of court in 2010, while another one was paid £5,900 after launching a civil claim, the Old Bailey was told.

Former headmaster father David Pearce and former maths teacher John Maestri have previously been prosecuted for child abuse at the school, jurors heard.

The court heard that several of the complainants came forward after reading about allegations of sexual abuse at the school on the internet.

Soper, formerly of Peja, Kosovo, denies two counts of buggery, one count of indecency with a child, 10 counts of indecent assault on boys under 16 and six counts of indecent assault on boys under 18.

The trial continues.

 

3 Oct 2017

Court 7 at 10.30am New trial of Andrew Soper, an ex-Roman Catholic priest has denied sexually abusing 10 boys at a west London school in the 1970s and 80s.

https://old-bailey.com/old-bailey-cases-of-interest/

2 Oct 2017

Mandate Now‏ @mandatenowDespite not featuring in Court Listings, the Trial of Soper commences in Court 7 of the Old Bailey at 10.30 today.


Former abbot to stand trial for abusing 10 schoolboys

Ealing

A former Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing 10 schoolboys in the 1970s and 1980s will stand trial in October. Father Laurence Soper, 73, a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London, is charged with 18 sex offences including buggery and indecent assault on boys under 16. They are said to have occurred at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he taught first as a priest before being promoted to abbot.

http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/former-abbot-stand-trial-abusing-10-schoolboys/

Ex-priest Laurence Soper denies sexually abusing boys

 

  • 10 August 2017

An ex-Roman Catholic priest has denied sexually abusing 10 boys at a west London school in the 1970s and 80s.

Laurence Soper, 73, is charged with 18 counts of sexual assault against boys aged under 16, at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he taught.

The former Abbott of Ealing Abbey appeared before the Old Bailey via video link and spoke only to confirm his name and deny the charges.

He is due to go on trial at the same court on 2 October.

None of the alleged victims, one of whom was aged under 14 at the time, can be identified for legal reasons.

Mr Soper is accused of committing indecent assault, indecency with a child, and serious sexual assault between 1972 and 1983.

In court he was addressed as Andrew Charles Kingston Soper – with Laurence being the name he took when he was ordained as a priest.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40887750


 

 Child abuse inquiry set to drop investigation into Ealing Abbey monks

Lawyers will propose next week that no evidence be called about decades of abuse of pupils at Ealing Abbey and its adjoining independent school, St Benedict’sTimes Newspapers Ltd

An investigation into one of the worst scandals to afflict the Catholic Church in Britain is set to be dropped from the public inquiry into child abuse.

Next week lawyers for Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), will propose that no evidence be called about decades of abuse of pupils at Ealing Abbey and its adjoining independent school, St Benedict’s.

Victims were furious and accused Professor Jay of backtracking on her previous promise not to reduce the scope of the inquiry. They said the move undermined the credibility of the inquiry, which has lost three chairwomen, cost more than £20 million and shown little tangible progress since it was set up by Theresa May in 2014.

More on Ealing Abbey here

Andrew studied Modern Languages at Bristol University, having attended Skinners School in Tunbridge Wells.

He started his teaching career at Douai School (where csa was covered-up) near Reading before moving to Winchester College, (where csa – John Smyth Qc – was covered-up) where he was Head of Modern Languages.

Andrew joined Birkdale School (Pervert teacher smacked boys admitting it had satisfied his “perverted instincts”.)

in Sheffield in September 2002 as Deputy Head before being appointed as Headmaster of Stonyhurst College (where csa was rife)  in September 2006.

https://attain.news/story/9725

Several former priests and teachers at the Jesuit-run Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley were investigated over sex abuse allegations in the late 90s

Father James Chaning-Pearce, who taught maths and physics there, was convicted of molesting four boys and jailed for five years in 1997.

And Father John James Pearson was later jailed for two years after admitting to more than 20 indecency charges at Preston Crown Court, also relating to Stonyhurst.

Fr “Jock”George Earle, accused of abuse as Headmaster of Stonyhurst, yet he went on to lead the Jesuits’ British Province…

 


Update on Soper court case:

Soper 2nd hearing

Soper’s case has been transferred to the Central Criminal Court. There was a plea and case management hearing on 25th November.

He has been charged with two counts of buggery, one of gross indecency and six of indecent assault.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A provisional trial date has been set for 13th February.

link

soper-sept-19-2016-trial

link

Monday, 19 September 2016

Soper hearing

There was a brief hearing today at Isleworth Crown Court.
No plea was entered and the case was adjourned until 28th November for a plea and case management hearing
link

Soper formrly of to appear @ Isleworth Crown Court on 19 Sept on charges of indecent assault + buggery

In court he gave his name as Andrew Charles Kingston Soper – with Laurence being the name he took when he was ordained as a priest.


Fugitive Catholic monk Laurence Soper is flown back to Britain after a five-year manhunt and charged with abusing five boys as young as 14

Met Police arrested him at Luton airport last night and then charged him.

Soper, who was detained under a European Arrest Warrant in Kosovo in May, will appear at Ealing Magistrates’ Court today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3752498/Fugitive-Catholic-monk-flown-Britain-five-year-manhunt-charged-abusing-five-boys-young-14.html

British priest wanted on child sex charges should not be extradited – Kosovo court

A former priest wanted on child sex abuse charges from the 1970s and 1980s should not be extradited to Britain because the crimes were committed too long ago, a court in Kosovo ruled on Monday.

Soper will remain in custody and the prosecutor has three days to appeal the ruling, she said.

This is the second time authorities in Kosovo have rejected the extradition request. In June, a court in Pristina rejected the request, seeking more documents from British authorities.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kosovo-britain-extradition-idUKKCN10J15Y

1 July 2016

A judge in Kosovo has blocked the extradition to Britain of former abbot of St Benedict’s Laurence Soper accused of child abuse.

 A Kosovan court blocked the move because under Kosovan law the child abuse allegations against him – some of which date back to the 1970s – had expired.

In 2010, Laurence Soper was arrested and questioned in Italy, where he was living at the time, after an alleged victim approached police claiming he had abused him.

When British police summoned him again for questioning in 2011 he did not return, sparking what became a five-year Europe-wide manhunt before he was eventually found and arrested in the Kosovan city of Peja earlier this year.

link

The Times understands that Soper has travelled around the region on his British passport and made 22 trips to Macedonia since 2011. It raises questions over why he was not arrested there, because Macedonia is a member of Europol.
In 2010, when Mr Soper was living in Italy, a complainant in his 40s reported historical claims of abuse to police. Mr Soper was arrested and questioned, and allowed to keep his passport and return to Rome, where he lived at Collegio Sant’Anselmo, the order’s headquarters. He vanished the next year when he was asked to answer bail in London.

Wanted monk Soper had travelled to Balkans freely

A runaway former abbot arrested in Kosovo over child sex offences had been travelling freely around the Balkans on his British passport, his landlord said last night.

Laurence Soper, a senior Roman Catholic cleric, had travelled to Macedonia and Albania despite jumping police bail and evading a European arrest warrant, it was claimed.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wanted-monk-had-travelled-to-balkans-freely-pfvtqgfbs

Laurence Soper has friends in  Balkan state of Montenegro according to a Church source.

Soper lived in Kosovo for years under the name Andre Insajderit. Soper has also used the name Andrew Charles.


CPS appeals as monk accused of child abuse remains in Kosovo

1 Jul 2016

Justice Lowell Goddard has said that the English Benedictine Congregation would be one of the first institutions to be investigated by the national child abuse inquiry

4 June 2016

The Goddard Inquiry

The Goddard Inquiry (also known as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) has issued a call for applications for “core participant” status in its investigation into abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The inquiry website states:

“The first case study will examine the English Benedictine Congregation which has been the subject of numerous allegations of child sexual abuse, including at schools run by the Congregation. The Inquiry will examine the relationship between Orders such as the Benedictines and the Catholic Church in England and Wales and consider how that relationship impacts on child protection. In this way the Inquiry will evaluate whether any failings identified within the English Benedictine Congregation, and within any other case studies identified as part of the investigation, are representative of wider failings within the Catholic Church.”

 
Chris Patten/ St Benedict’s child abuse paedophile ring/ Patrick Rock/ Balkans/Vatican

Laurence Soper  is the former abbot of Ealing Abbey. He taught at St Benedict’s (where Chris Patten is patron) for 12 years

The Metropolitan police had sought to bring back Laurence Soper, a senior cleric in the Roman Catholic Church, when he was found in the Balkans, in the eastern town of Peja, after a five-year manhunt.

Neighbours told a reporter that Soper, 72, had lived in the town for some years, did not have a job and had said he was writing a book.

“Kosovo is the unrecognised break-away Serbian state which was at the centre of the bombing campaign that generated huge numbers of orphans.  This bombing campaign … destroyed many families in Bosnia and Herzegovina…

The resulting micro states in the Kosovo-Bosnia-Albanian region are now the hotbeds of child trafficking syndicates who have wealthy customers in the Vatican to the West and Czech and Polish pedo traders in the North West.”

link

link

link

soper_zpsjnyja8we
Laurence Soper – former Chaplain at Harrow School
Soper taught at St Benedict’s from 1972 to 1984 and was abbot at Ealing for nine years until 2000.
He was one of the most powerful figures in the Benedictine order, the oldest Catholic monastic order, and also served as  chaplain at Harrow School  from 1981 to 1991 and as a visiting chaplain at Feltham young offender institution.
PRISONS Feltham/gv
Allegations: Feltham Young Offenders Institution where Fr Soper was chaplain 1988-2000
Concerns were also raised about Soper’s time as part-time chaplain at Feltham
Young Offender Institution between 1988 and 2000 by a former worker.
There have been complaints about abuse of inmates at Feltham, and Ealing Abbey subsequently confirmed that the police interviewed Soper at the time in connection with those complaintslink

Soper retired as Abbot in 2000 and immediately moved to the Benedictine headquarters at Collegio Sant’Anselmo in Rome where he became general treasurer of the International Benedictine Confederation in 2002 until his disappearance in 2011.
anselmo
Sant’Anselmo in Rome.

Laurence Soper was bursar of Sant’Anselmo and treasurer of the worldwide Benedictine

Confederation,
(Until 2013, the age of consent in the Vatican was 12 years old.)
Sant’Anselmo in Rome is the center of the Benedictine Confederation, where the Benedictine abbots of the world meet every four years for the Confederation congress. Sant’Anselmo is the seat of the Abbot Primate.
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Beside the visible swimming pool for the students is the headquarters of the Knights of Malta
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518311618-latest-vatican-bank-reforms-meant-to-finally-end


His friends say that Laurence Soper also worked at the Vatican Bank.

From Laundering To Profiteering, A Multitude Of Sins At The Vatican Bank

For decades, the Catholic Church has been dogged by scandals involving money. Vatican City — a sovereign state — controls its own finances through the Vatican Bank. It developed as a cross between the Federal Reserve and an offshore bank.

The Vatican Bank –  one of the top banks in the world for money laundering

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/30/382374060/from-laundering-to-profiteering-a-multitude-of-sins-at-the-vatican-bank


 2011: In recent years, Soper frequently took himself off on sudden short holidays to Morocco, Tunisia, Albania and Montenegro.


Child abuse case monk in secret trip to Vatican while on the run

Fr Laurence, known as ‘St Benedict’s banker after hiding in Montenegro on the Adriatic coast – where the European Arrest Warrant is not valid – he secretly returned to the Vatican to empty his account.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066730/Child-abuse-case-monk-secret-trip-Vatican-run.html

Did the Vatican know nothing about his return to withdraw funds?


Harrow school where Laurence Soper was chaplain

soper20harrow20book_zpso3wd8b6r1
9781849310239
(Harrow, Sedbergh and Durham schools, all raided in the late 1990s during a nationwide investigation into an alleged paedophile network of teachers at six leading public schools. )
2010 Papal honour for distinguished service – for James E Holland who worked with fr Laurence Soper
soper20201020jeh20harrovian_zpsczb2xpuj
soper20jeh_zpsyuv3pvpp
Laurence Soper and Dr J E Holland (JEH) worked together in the early years preparing boys for Confirmation
dr-je-holland-under-master-tatler-19aug14_henry-kenyon_b_1080x720
Laurence Soper OSB worked with JEH (Dr JE Holland) in the early years to establish the bare bones of what would later become the Catholic Chaplaincy.
Holland, James Edwin, PhD
Assistant Master (Modern Languages) 1980-; House Master of Elmfield 1995- 2007; University Liaison Master 1992-95. University of Toronto (1stclass French & German).
At Harrow in 2003,  Lady Diana’s nephew George McCorquodale was punished by housemaster Dr James Holland for bullying

George and Emily McCorquodale are children of Neil Edmund McCorquodale and his wife, née Lady Sarah SpencerLady Sarah, whose godmother was the Queen Mother, was a prosecution witness and had to answer questions about the gifts to Diana’s godchildren and about the “rape tape” – alleged to have contained allegations made by former servant George Smith of a male rape in the royal household.

link
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=royals&id=I44900

‘BULLY’ BROTHER PUNISHED.

EMILY’S illness is the family’s second blow in less than a month after her brother was disciplined for bullying at school.
George, 18, is to be excluded from end of term celebrations at Harrow as a punishment for taunting a fellow pupil.

But the teenager has been allowed to stay on to take his exams.

George, who bears a striking resemblance to close friend Prince Harry, will leave the pounds 19,500 a year school after next Saturday’s Speech Day, traditionally attended by all the school’s pupils. Sources at Harrow said George carried out a relentless campaign of abuse against the other pupil who eventually reported him to his family.

They went to housemaster Dr James Holland, who took action.

While not excusing George’s behaviour, sources suggested he has been deeply affected by his sister’s illness and publicity surrounding his family during the Paul Burrell trial. One said: “Obviously all the other pupils were aware of it and it did not help his behaviour.

“There was some emotional impact and that was reflected in how he behaved towards other pupils.”

Harrow’s headmaster Barnaby Lennon denied George had been expelled. He said: “I’m not prepared to discuss the disciplinary record of any individual pupil.

Harrow is one of Britain’s oldest public schools and has educated six Prime Ministers including Winston Churchill.

14troyt

link

Grandfather of bully George McCorquodale – Lord Alastair McCorquodale-  was a governor at Harrow school up until his death (2009). His son Neil  married Lady Sarah Spencer

Harrow School & convicted paedophile rev Peter Ball
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Jimmy Savile and Prince Charles’ very close friendship with sex abuse bishop Peter Ball

Prince Charles Provided Free House To Bishop Arrested in UK Child Abuse Probe

Charles was a ‘loyal friend’, Bishop said

The UK’s spiraling child-abuse scandal has already reached Prince Charles once – he was a good friend of the children’s TV presenter Jimmy Savile who was a predatory paedophile – and now the prince’s judgment is being called into question again, after it emerged that a retired Church of England bishop arrested by police investigating historic allegations of child sex abuse was given a free house to live in by Charles after the bishop resigned in disgrace having received a police caution for committing acts of gross indecency.

Ball said : ‘He [Prince Charles] has been wonderfully kind and allowed me to have a Duchy house. The prince is a loyal friend.’

‘I have immense admiration for him. He has been through horrific times and is a great person.‘


Establishment figures who helped paedophile bishop Peter Ball avoid prosecution for sex abuse revealed

Harrow School’s relationship with convicted paedophile friend of Prince Charles, the Rev Peter Ball:

Former Harrow School headmaster Ian Beer said Ball was “almost saintly” and had shown a “remarkable influence for the good with the young”.
Ian Beer sent boys from all three schools he worked in (Harrow, Lancing and Ellesmere) to Peter Ball
According to Headmaster Ian Beer, in his letter of support for the paedophile Peter Ball, pupils flocked to Peter Ball for confidential help and advice
Harrow hosted young people from Bishop Peter Ball’s scheme in Sussex
Ian Beer recommended that Peter Ball be made governor

Ian Beer was an old chum of Denis Thatcher

At Denis Thatcher’s Funeral : a poem was read by Sir Denis’s old rugby chum, former-head of Harrow, Ian Beer

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-187319/Maggies-final-farewell-Denis.html#ixzz3wIkGgyyN

Ian Beer attended a Christmas Eve party w/Thatcher & Jimmy Savile at Chequers:

1982Dec 24 Fr
Archive (Thatcher MSS)

MT Engagement Diary

1340 To Chequers

1830-2000 Small drinks party

Guest List

Carringtons, Tim Smith, Ian Beer (Headmaster of Harrow), Station Commander of RAF Halton, Jimmy Savile, Mr. Hooker, Davids, Hamiltons, Nicholsons, Alison Ward:

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/125054

b5276f06-070b-4a1c-aab3-7592e4d6c62e_zps90b3ffd7

Tim Smith – Leon Brittan’s PPS 1983-1985  He has no memory of the ‘Dickens Dossier’.

link

Harrow graduate and a Tory Party ex-vice chairman

Parly under-sec NI Office 1994

On 3 July 1997 he was found guilty  of taking cash for questions from Al Fayed, along with Neil Hamilton


Harrow: In 1974 an IRA bomb exploded at one of the masters’ flats, and in the same year an arsonist set fire to one of the houses, The Grove. The offender, one of the boys in the house, was tried in 1975 at the Old Bailey, where he produced evidence of “card and beer sessions” and claimed to have been the victim of homosexual “attack”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1436495/Michael-Hoban.html

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Bishop Peter Ball

harrow20beer_zpsalis34ia
Thatcher, a Harrow parent, used to visit the school as Prime Minister and in 1987 hosted a fund-raising reception at Downing Street.
harrow20thatcher_zpszgs3fsfy
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Ian David Stafford Beer; Headmaster at Harrow School 1981 – 1991
Laurence Soper, Peter Ball and Ian Beer at Harrow in the same time frame. 1981-1991
and where boys were being exchanged between Harrow School and Bishop  Peter Ball’s “scheme in Sussex”
beer

Peter Ball was Chaplain to the Headmasters’ Conference for a period of time


image733
Ian David Stafford Beer Headmaster at Harrow School 1981–1991 
Ian Beer of Harrow speaking about Rev Peter Ball:
beer20letter20pg202_zpscl80azrw

Andrew Charles Kingsdon Soper, also known as Father Laurence, was born in Hendon, Middlesex, on September 17 1943, to Alan Kingsdon Soper and Anne, maiden name Morris. His Penzance-born father married his mother in Cardiff in 1936.
soper
He was a distant cousin of the socialist and Methodist peer Lord Donald Soper.
lord-soper-cliff-r
Among the prominent Methodists associated with the Kingsway Hall was Donald Soper, who was Superintendent Minister at the West London Mission from 1936 until his retirement in 1978.
cliff-west-london-mission

soper_zpsjnyja8we
Father Laurence Soper briefly worked for Barclays Bank before entering the monastery in 1964. He taught at St Benedict’s from 1973-83, and became bursar between 1975-1991. He was elected Ruling Abbot from 1991-2000, but quit Britain in 2001 for Rome.
Education St Benedict’s Sch Ealing, St Benet’s Hall Oxford, Collegio Sant Anselmo Rome (STL, STD), St Mary’s Coll Twickenham (PGCE)
Books & Publications The Thoughts of Jesus Christ (1970), T H Green as Theologian (1972)
Recreations walking
 
The Rt Rev Laurence Soper, OSB

Career Barclays Bank 1960-64; entered monastery Ealing 1964; ordained: deacon (Assisi) 1969, priest 1970; St Benedict’s Sch Ealing: teacher 1973-83, bursar 1975-91, prior 1984-91, ruling abbot 1991-2000; titular abbot St Albans 2000-; episcopal vicar for Religious in Archdiocese of Westminster Western Area 1995-2000; delg to Gen Chapter (sec) 1985 and 1989; pt/t chaplain Harrow Sch 1981-91, visiting chaplain Feltham YOI 1988-2000; chm Union of Monastic Superiors 1995-99, gen treas Int Benedictine Confedn 2002-; Freeman City of Norcia Italy; FRSA 1975


Background on St Benedict’s:

Chris Patten is a former pupil and is on the Board of School Advisers

2011

A review by Lord Carlile QC  (considered a whitewash, especially as it was commissioned by the school’s trustees) into decades of paedophile activity at St Benedict’s school, a Catholic school attached to the abbey, published in 2011, listed 21 abuse cases starting in 1970.

Soper was named as one of five clergy wanted for questioning in relation to paedophile activity involving pupils.

The inquiry at the school was prompted after a former headteacher, Father David Pearce, was convicted of abusing five boys. He was jailed for eight years in 2009 for the abuse over 36 years. Four of the victims were under 14.

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Father David Pearce

Lord Carlile’s report says that as a result of the reforms being put in place, he believes that St Benedict’s is now an “excellent place” for boys and girls to be “educated in safety”.

link

In addition to Father David Pearce, two former teachers at St. Benedict’s (John Maestri and Stephen Skelton) have been convicted of sexual abuse of pupils, and the school’s deputy headmaster Peter Allott was arrested in late 2015. He subsequently pleaded guilty to possessing, making and distributing child abuse images and was sentenced to 33 months in jail.

link

link

maestri-90216641_180412c

In 1982 a Middle-School Master called John Maestri disappeared weeks before he was due to replace Dom Laurence Soper as Master of the Middle School.

“It emerged many years later that the parent of the victim had complained to Abbot Francis that she would report John Maestri to the Police if he were allowed to take up the post as Master of the Middle School. He then disappeared.

Maestri has been before Isleworth Crown Court on three occasions. All of them for sexual offences against boys under the age of 14, all of them pupils at St. Benedict’s School, and all the offences relate to his time teaching at the school. In all three cases he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Maestri went on to teach at another school after he left St. Benedict’s.

…The obvious inference is that Maestri was asked to leave quietly to avoid publicity, and that part of the deal involved giving him a good reference that made no mention of the real reason for his departure.

I wonder how many times something like this has happened at the school.

But the most ironic and even tragic thing is that Maestri’s position as junior school headteacher subsequently went to – Father David Pearce.

It was a very strange failure of judgment that caused the Abbot to appoint two paedophile abusers in quick succession as junior school headteacher

link


2015

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab37/gdnss/st%20bene_zpssmnrgloo.jpg

The judge said:

“I use the phrase of a paedophile ring, that’s precisely what that was.”

He studied history and politics at Hull University and gained a second degree in theology at the University of Durham.

Peter William Allott, who was the deputy head at St Benedict’s Catholic Independent Day School, pleaded guilty to possessing, showing and making indecent images of children, one offence of possessing extreme pornography and possession of class A drugs

Allott admitted possessing 25 ‘grossly offensive’ images on a hard drive and sharing the images with other offenders

Allott, 36 was arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command, acting on intelligence was received that an individual had been using video conferencing facilities to share indecent images of children with others around the UK.

The judge said:

“I use the phrase of a paedophile ring, that’s precisely what that was.”

Allott was associated with a man whose online chat name was “London Paedo”.

He added that he shared images on Zoom and had image capture software to save pictures when others sent them to him.

Some of the material featured children as young as 2 years old.

“He was alarmed by some of it. He said he was surprised some of them were still alive.”

link


 St Benedict’s:

There’s a pattern here. The abuse is widespread. The perpetrators often seem to have been made headmaster of the middle school at some point in their career. The abuse was common knowledge – to both boys and teachers. And nothing was done, because the authority of the church was behind the abusers. They were monks and priests as well as teachers. Sometimes senior monks – headmaster or even Abbot

link



Paedophile Peter Allott left for a year in 2011 to work as a research associate for a project on the Prime Minister David Cameron’s “Big Society” initiative and Catholic social teaching at CambridgeUniversity.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3353705/Deputy-head-leading-Catholic-school-stored-child-porn-office.html#ixzz3uEk75iDC

Chris Patten is linked with paedophile- infested St Benedict’s as patron. Peter Allott of St Benedict’s was  convicted of making indecent images of underage children

Chris Patten is linked to Patrick Rock, a paedophile also convicted and making indecent images of underage children (Patrick Rock was Patten’s  former adviser on the West Balkans)

Patrick Rock moved to Brussels and worked for Chris Patten (European Commissioner) …Patten preceded by Leon Brittan

 photo patten and brittan_zpsa6u2427c.jpg

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2011 David Cameron brought Patrick Rock back into Downing Street appointing him deputy head of the influential No 10 policy unit. The same year Peter Allott was chosen to work on David Cameron’s Big Initiative Policy Project

Was Peter Rock involved?

2011: In recent years, Laurence Soper frequently took himself off on sudden short holidays to Morocco, Tunisia, Albania and Montenegro.

Vatican Inquiry into Ealing Abbey Child Sex Abuse

October 25, 2011

2014 Lord Patten named president of new Vatican media team

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/04/patrick-rock-tory)

1/6/2016

Patrick Rock, former aide to David Cameron, has been convicted of five counts of making indecent images of children.

Patrick Rock – Special advisor to Chris Patten

After his unsuccessful attempts at becoming an MP, Patrick Rock became an advisor to various Ministers during the 1990s, including

Michael Howard and also Chris Patten in Brussels, where he was given responsibility for the Western Balkans.

Tony Blair sent Patten to Brussels.  Patten was there from 1999 – 2004

link


Patrick Rock admitted downloading the pictures of young Czech girls while staying at the Pinehurst hotel and golf club in the US

He admitted downloading images of 20 young girls.

Youngest victim would have been 8 yrs old.

Commenting in the Telegraph, Joan Smith pointed out that his youngest victim, now 10, would have been even younger 2 years ago when the offences were committed and that his government duties had included devising policies to make the internet safer for children. Smith expressed astonishment that Rock would not spend a single night in prison and says upper class status protected him

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/humiliation-isnt-why-ex-cameron-aide-patrick-rock-walked-free-af/

SOFT JUSTICE
 Patrick Rock, 65, was found guilty of five counts of making indecent images of children in June
Patrick Rock, 65, was found guilty of five counts of making indecent images of children

Patrick Rock, David Cameron’s former aide who was spared jail over indecent pictures of children was given softer sentence because of judge’s blunder

The 65-year-old also served under Margaret Thatcher and worked on child abuse policy when he was arrested

23rd January 2017,

A FORMER aide to David Cameron convicted of having indecent pictures of children was given a slashed sentence because of a judge’s mistake.

Patrick Rock was given just a two-year conditional discharge after downloading images of half-naked girls in sexual poses – some as young as ten – to his iPad.

Under David Cameron, Rock was deputy head of Home Affairs policy unit with responsibility for co-ordinating the government’s response to child abuse images online.

The Oxford graduate also served under Margaret Thatcher as political correspondence secretary.

The minimum period should have been five years, but the mistake Judge Alistair McCreath made in June was not spotted until it was too late.

Judge McCreath only became aware of the “error” in October when he received a letter from the Met Police’s solicitor – but it was after the eight-week deadline to make any changes.

Today, Judge McCreath told Southwark Crown Court: “The position, crystal clear as it was, is now doubly crystal clear. There is nothing that I can do.

Rock served under David Cameron and worked in the Home Affairs policy unit on its response to child abuse

“It has always been the duty of the prosecution to inform the court of its powers to sentence and in the event of the court making an error in its powers of sentencing it is the for the prosecution to inform the court so it can remedy it.

“When an error is made it has to be brought to the attention of the court within eight weeks, this order was made on June 2, the first I heard of it was when a letter was sent from the Met Commissioner solicitors dated October 10.

“I recognise that was unlawful but this error was not brought to my attention in time within the generous eight weeks allowed.

“I have no power to do anything about this because the time has now passed in which I could exercise these powers.

“In these circumstances this application to vary the order has to be refused.”

He said the police lawyer “has fairly acknowledged error on the part of the prosecution at the time of sentence”.

On the possibility of amending the order, he added: “I have no power to do so and I am bound to refuse (this application).”

Rock, 65, of Fulham, south-west London, faced 20 charges of making indecent images of a child in August 2013 and was convicted of five counts.

He was cleared of three and the jury was unable to reach verdicts on the other 12, which were left to lie on file.

Rock was told he must register as a sex offender for the duration of the two years and was also banned from using a device with the internet unless it can retain his browsing history – and must allow police to inspect his history.

Sentencing him, Judge McCreath had told him: “The punishment for you is the loss of your reputation and your very public humiliation.”

Judge McCreath gave Rock a two-year conditional discharge on each count to run concurrently and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Yet a letter from the Met Commissioner’s office dated October 10 last year indicated the discharge should have been for five years, as that is the statutory minimum.

The Crown Prosecution Service indicted it may apply to the Court of Appeal to have the order amended.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2683699/patrick-rock-david-cameron-aide-spared-jail-indecent-pictures-children/

Cameron Aide Guilty of Downloading Child Porn; but Did Policy Chief Delete Indecent Images on Second Computer?

Daily Mail (London), June 2, 2016

It can now be revealed that he may have hid other incriminating evidence before his arrest in February 2014. Rock is believed to have wiped a computer after a tip-off from his sister that the FBI had seized his iPad containing the images. It had been found by builders at his mother’s home in North Carolina shortly after her death.

Investigators believe his sister, who lives in America, emailed him about the search. prompted Rock to erase the memory on a second tablet he had with him in the UK.

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-453888491/cameron-aide-guilty-of-downloading-child-porn-but

https://goodnessandharmony.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/patrick-rock-aide-to-david-cameron-michael-howard-chris-patten/

Slain UK MP Jo Cox Took Close Interest in Bosnia

British MP Jo Cox gave her first child a Bosniak name and had ties to Srebrenica.

Slain UK MP Took Close Interest in Bosnia

…took a passionate interest in the Balkans, Sudan and Syria, visiting Srebrenica and running a camp for orphans from the eastern Bosnian town, where Bosnian Serbs massacred about 8,000 Bosniak Muslims in 1995.

As well as giving her first-born child a Bosniak name, Lejla, she referred regularly to past tragic events in Bosnia – and Kosovo – in parliamentary speeches urging Britain’s Conservative government to intervene more forcefully in the Syrian civil war.



From wikileaks:

rock20wikileaks_zpsy5hakjp1

2. (C) Patrick Rock, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten’s cabinet adviser on Balkans issues, pointed to the 30 June EU statement offering full support for Ashdown’s actions in Bosnia earlier in the day and stressing the need for full cooperation with the Tribunal. Regarding visa bans, Rock thought that it was possible that the EU would follow the U.S. and add additional names recommended by Ashdown. He was firm, however, in saying that the EU was not able to freeze assets of ICTY indictee support networks, which he attributed to legal issues in some member states. Although the presidency country could not change member-state law, Rock did feel that the Dutch might be able to take a more active approach and encouraged our raising the issue with them. Rock said that the EU’s Western Balkans Working Group (COWEB) would almost certainly consider the demarche at its next meeting and remarked that the UK “could often be helpful.”

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/04BRUSSELS2828_a.html



Patrick Rock comes from a Catholic family and was schooled by Jesuits

Rock’s headmaster, Fr George Hughes Earle, was a protected Jesuit paedophile

Fr “Jock”George Earle, accused of abuse as Headmaster of Stonyhurst, yet he went on to lead the Jesuits’ British Province…

Young Jock joined the RAF, and served as an Intelligence officer in India and Burma.

On returning to Britain Earle worked briefly for the Ministry of Defence, then read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford,

Fr George Earle, headmaster of Stonyhurst from 1964 to 1971, and later provincial of the Society of Jesus in Britain  – The judge at his trial concluded that three charges of indecent assault against one boy dating back to 1971 had to be dropped because of an agreement that was made at the time between the solicitor representing the boy’s parents and the Jesuits’ solicitors

http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/7th-april-2001/31/the-stonyhurst-file

George Hughes Earle, known as Jock (1925 – 2003)

After stepping down from Stonyhurst, Earle became an assistant to the Provincial for Education; he also became co-editor of The Way, the Jesuit journal of Ignatian spirituality. For three years he was Rector of St Aloysius’s College, Glasgow (Fr. George Earle. 1978 – 1981), with overall responsibility for the Jesuit parish and school. To the further surprise of many members of the Society, he was chosen to head the Jesuits’ English province, which was renamed the British province at his instigation.

One of his special concerns was the Society’s South African region, but he was not pleased when it was suggested that this was because he was preparing a comfortable billet for when he had completed his six years in office.

After a sabbatical, Earle assisted the South African bishops’ conference with the training of priests, and proved a popular retreat giver. When the allegations about his headmastership emerged, Earle returned to Britain, later joining the staff of the Jesuit Refugee Service at Osterley, Middlesex, helping asylum seekers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1444437/Father-Jock-Earle.html


Vatican Inquiry into Ealing Abbey Child Sex Abuse

October 25, 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15442914

Chris Patten attends a mass with newly appointed cardinals held by Pope Francis at St Peter’s

Chris Patten to take up media adviser role to Pope Francis

Former Conservative MP takes up new role only two months after dramatically quitting as chairman of BBC Trust due to heart problems

09 Jul 2014

He most recently was head of the organisation that oversaw the BBC, enduring three turbulent years as Britain’s public broadcaster battled a series of scandals.

He stood down in May after heart surgery, saying he needed to reduce the range of roles he undertook.

Why, then, would he undertake such a significant role?

Jimmy Savile: BBC boss Lord Patten rejects call for independent investigation …
Daily Mail

Chris Patten accused of a cover-up on BBC Savile probe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521976/BBC-chairman-Chris-Patten-Patten-accused-cover-BBC-Savile-probe-blunder.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10956058/Chris-Patten-to-take-up-media-adviser-role-to-Pope-Francis.html

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten told the Commons’ media select committee: ‘We will publish everything the Pollard review reports.

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Jimmy Savile photographed in the library at Fort Augustus Catholic school

Sexual predator Jimmy Savile was regular visitor to Catholic school at centre of abuse scandal

FORMER BBC presenter was frequently invited to Fort Augustus Abbey by Benedictine Order monks.

Image result for savile and o'brien

Disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, a good friend of Savile’s, was also a regular visitor at the school.

The revelations of Savile’s visits to the school came as it emerged that many more pupils have stepped forward to claim they, too, were victims of monk teachers.

Savile spent much of his time in the Highlands even before buying a cottage in Glencoe in 1998, which was just over an hour’s drive from Fort Augustus.

Fort Augustus was used as a “dumping ground” for problem clergy who had confessed to abusing children.

O’Brien, who was forced to leave Scotland earlier this year after being forced to admit to inappropriate sexual behaviour, was guest of honour at the school’s old boys’ dinner last year.

The pair met when O’Brien was priest at St Patrick’s Church in Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, in 1971.

Savile was a regular visitor because his mother Agnes was friends with O’Brien’s colleague, Fr Denis O’Connell.

Five men claimed on the Sins Of Our Fathers documentary that they were raped or sexually abused by Father Aidan Duggan, an Australian monk who taught at Carlekemp and Fort Augustus between 1953 and 1974.

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Victim claims abuse on Manchester United trip

10 November 2017

A 61-year-old man from Glasgow has told the BBC he was sexually abused on a football trip to Manchester United in the late 1960s.

James, who wants to keep his anonymity, believes he was “trafficked” to English football clubs by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order which ran his school.

He said he was repeatedly abused by the brothers at his primary school.

In a statement, Manchester United said it had found no information relating to the Marist Brothers in its review.

The Old Trafford club looked into historical abuse as part of the English FA’s inquiry, led by barrister Clive Sheldon QC.

It is looking at the way clubs or the FA dealt with concerns over child sex abuse between 1970 and 2005.

Initiation ceremony

However, James said he thought his abuse happened on a trip in 1969, when he was 12 or 13.

James told the BBC he was in a group of “elite” young footballers who were selected by his school to take part in a tournament in Manchester.

The boys were taken to Old Trafford and the club’s training ground, where they played matches and toured the stadium, the boot room and directors’ offices.

James said he had visions of becoming a Manchester United player like his heroes George Best and Bobby Charlton but he said he was taken from the hostel where the boys were staying and sexually abused.

He said he did not know who abused him but he was taken outside as part of an “initiation ceremony”.

“It was non-consensual sex,” he said.

“Adult and a child.”

James said he did not know if other young footballers were also abused.

“None of us ever spoke about it,” he said.

According to James, he was not aware at the time that it was abuse.

It was portrayed as part of the “football journey” of going down to the club and possibly becoming a professional footballer.

He said: “I believe I was forced to do it because of my previous experience. I thought there was no escape, I had to take the action.”

His previous abuse was at the hands of the Marist Brothers who ran his primary school, the Sacred Heart Primary School in the east end of Glasgow.

James said he was regularly beaten around the lower body by branches with thorns, belts or by hand for not knowing the answers to questions about the Mass.

He told the BBC he would soil himself when he was beaten and his sister would be sent for to take him out of class.

Grooming process

“That then led to an increase in the abuse which began by befriending you, telling you that you weren’t a bad person, you were a good person,” he said.

“All part of the grooming process, then on to sitting on the knee,.

“Then, after the beatings, removing the clothing to make sure there were no marks.

“And then other sexual activity.”

The beatings stopped when James moved to high School.

But a more sinister form of abuse began, he said.

Fort Augustus School

James said he was sent to the former Fort Augustus Abbey Roman Catholic boarding school

James said he was sent for a “holiday” to Fort Augustus school in the Highlands where BBC Scotland has uncovered evidence that widespread abuse took place.

He was also sent to Pluscarden Abbey. Both were run by the Benedictine order.

He said he was abused by monks there.

James said he was also abused when his football team were sent to English football clubs.

“I realise now I was trafficked,” he said.

“I didn’t realise that at the time.

“But there is a link between the abuse in the primary school – the Marist Brothers.

“A link to the Marist Brothers sending me to Fort Augustus and Pluscarden to the Benedictines and the Marist Brothers then sending me to the football clubs.”

He said: “My understanding was these clubs were more or less looking at us for potentially signing for the clubs.

“The type of player I was playing football with went on to be professional football players, to be professional football managers and professional coaches at the highest level in the Scottish Football Association.”

Internal investigation

Manchester United said: “We have no knowledge or records of any allegations of this nature.

“However, If we are provided with further details and they allege involvement of anyone connected with the club, we will of course investigate further and involve all appropriate authorities.”

The Marist Brothers no longer run schools in Scotland but they maintain a house in Glasgow.

In a statement the order’s lawyers said it took all allegations against it seriously, and referred them to police and an internal investigation.

It said: “The allegations in question were investigated by the police, and the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Service confirmed our clients have done all that is possible regarding the allegations made.”

“James wants the public to know about the scandal of the historic trafficking of children round the UK.

“He wants more survivors of sexual abuse to come forward so that the perpetrators of this abuse and the institutions that protected them are held to account and we will continue to support him as he campaigns to achieve this.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-41926783

Pluscarden Abbey

https://spidercatweb.blog/2016/01/19/police-scotland-shut-down-the-pluscarden-abbey-child-abuse-investigation/

Priest, Father Paul Moore ,  convicted 20 years after first confessing

14 March 2018

Moore

Moore was sent to Fort Augustus after allegedly admitting child abuse to the bishop

An 82-year-old Catholic priest who confessed to his bishop more than 20 years ago that he had abused young boys has finally been convicted.

Father Paul Moore has been found guilty of sexually abusing three children and a student priest in crimes spanning more than 20 years.

One of his victims was just five years old.

A BBC Scotland investigation reported five years ago that Moore had admitted in 1996 that he had abused more than one boy years earlier, and it was initially covered up by the bishop.

The then Bishop of Galloway, Maurice Taylor, did not contact the authorities about the priest’s confession until eight months later. Instead, he sent him to a treatment centre in Toronto.

Bishop Taylor removed the priest from his parish in Prestwick, Ayrshire, and later sent him to Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands, which was run by Benedictine monks.

The attached school was by this time closed, but the abbey remained open. That is where Moore joined monk Richard White – who was also a self-confessed paedophile, later jailed for five years for child abuse.

The 2013 BBC documentary Sins of Our Fathers told how Moore was still living in a house which was purchased by the church.

Bishop Taylor said Moore had told him about actions that “occurred years previously”, and that the priest was removed from the pastoral ministry after the admission.

The bishop said: “The initial advice I was given was that since no allegations had been made against Moore but that he had made personal admission to me, I didn’t need to inform the authorities.”

The bishop said he arranged a meeting with the procurator fiscal in Kilmarnock in November 1996.

He said: “The Crown Office informed us in 1999 that they had decided not to proceed with any action but the case remained open.”

It was only when the victims came forward after the BBC documentary that the criminal case was brought.

n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.

Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.

He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”

Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.

He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.

n 2013, the BBC revealed claims by a former altar boy that he had been abused by Moore.

Two years later, Paul Smyth waived his anonymity to speak to a follow-up investigation.

He said: “I just want people to know the truth, I’m not running away any more.”

Mr Smyth told the BBC how he’d been sexually assaulted on Irvine beach when he was 11.

He eventually told the police what happened in 1997, the year after Moore apparently admitted the abuse to Bishop Taylor.

Also in the 2015 follow-up, the BBC revealed a second man, another former altar server and now in his late 40s, was abused by Moore for several years as a teenager in Ayrshire.

The investigation obtained a copy of a £10,000 cheque given to the man by Moore in 2009.

Moore denied the cheque was “hush money” and says it was meant as a loan.

Moore being shown the cheque by Mark Daly

Moore being shown the cheque by Mark Daly

When confronted, Moore denied that he had confessed any child abuse to Bishop Taylor.

He accepted he was aware the man had made allegations against him, and was asked if he accepted that a payment to an alleged victim may look like “hush money”.

He responded: “Sure, it looks now, I realise that now in these times but it’s not that, it wasn’t hush money.

“In the Bible it says lend without hope of getting things back… as far as I’m concerned he can keep it.”

Asked if the two men were lying about the abuse claims, Moore said: “No, they’re not lying. They think that’s what it is. But it’s not.”

Some of the abuse was alleged to have taken place at St Mark’s Primary School in Irvine

The court case also heard from another man, now in his 40s, who told how Moore sexually assaulted him at St Mark’s primary school in Irvine in 1976.

Nowadays that crime would have been classed as rape.

Another man told of an occasion when he was abused at Irvine’s Magnum Centre when he was still a child.

Moore was ordained in 1960 and served in six different parishes in the south west of Scotland before retirement.

In 1995, he abused a student priest and around the same time he was found to have repeatedly stared at the bodies of young boys in Prestwick swimming pool.

Soon after this he made his confession to the bishop.

Bishop Taylor

Bishop Taylor was told of the abuse in 1996

Bishop Taylor, who is now 92, appeared in court and said Moore had admitted to him in 1996 that he had a desire to abuse minors and he knew it was wrong.

He spoke of abusing boys while they slept and others at a swimming pool.

The bishop was shown personnel records he had taken in 1996 when Moore asked to see him.

He told the bishop he had sexual involvement with two males who had been underage at the time.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-43398633

Fury at sex abuse inquiry snub: Ex pupils ‘devastated’ by bombshell U-turn

May 15 2017

Fort augustus abbey school.jpg

VICTIMS who claim they suffered horrific sexual abuse at a Scots school have been snubbed by an official inquiry – despite being backed by the PM who said they helped set it up.

When she was Home Secretary, Theresa May wrote to a former pupil of Fort Augustus Abbey school to thank him for his “invaluable” help setting up the English Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2015.

But the evidence of former Scottish pupils like him who attended that infamous boarding school is now unlikely to be heard at the powerful inquiry in London.

Last week, Fort Augustus Abbey was left off the list of schools to be examined by the IICSA later this year.

The snub has prompted fury among those who claim their lives were ruined by what they experienced at the boarding school.

Last night one victim told The Sunday Post: “This has come out of the blue. We’ve been waiting a long time for the inquiry.

“The effect is devastating on our mental health. There have been a number of suicides by ex-pupils because of the abuse.”

He said former pupils are very upset at the bombshell development, especially given Prime Minister May’s earlier support.

In 2015, Theresa May wrote to one of Fort Augustus’s ex-pupils following a number of meetings between the pair where they discussed the alleged abuse he suffered.

Having set up the inquiry less than two weeks previously, she wrote: “With your help we have now established an inquiry to get to the truth about what child sexual abuse occurred in institutions across the UK and why nothing was done.”

But those words now seem empty, after lawyers for Fort Augustus Abbey pupils were contacted last week to reveal the shock evidence reversal.

Fort Augustus Abbey – which was run by an order of English monks – is at the centre of allegations of physical and sexual abuse spanning 30 years.

The exclusive Highlands school shut for good in 1993 but horrific allegations about the way pupils were treated emerged in 2013.

Last year, the English Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse announced those claims would be examined – despite the school being in Scotland.

There is a Scottish inquiry set up to probe similar issues north of the border called the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

But campaigners say the English inquiry has been given more clout to take action, which is why ex-pupils from Fort Augustus lobbied to be included in it.

A spokeswoman for the IICSA said the institutions to be examined were still not set in stone – despite the new proposals.

She said: “No decisions of any sort have been made about the matters to be considered at the hearing.”

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/fury-at-sex-abuse-inquiry-snub/?utm_source=twitter

father-francis-davidson

Ex-headmaster of Aberdeen school,

Father Francis Davidson,

at centre of sexual abuse allegations resigns from university post

Father Francis Davidson has been accused of failing to act on reports during time at Fort Augustus Abbey School in Highlands.

15 AUG 2013

A FORMER headmaster of a boarding school at the centre of sexual abuse allegations has resigned from a role at Oxford University.

Father Francis Davidson has been accused of failing to act on reports during his time at the Catholic Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands in the 1970s.

He has quit as monastic superior of the Benedictine college St Benet’s Hall, where he was responsible for the welfare of student monks at the university.

Alleged victims who attended the Abbey school told a BBC Scotland investigation that they were molested and beaten by monks over a period of three decades from the 1950s.

It has also been claimed that abuse was carried out at Carlekemp, its feeder school in East Lothian. Both schools are now closed.

Fort Augustus Abbey
FORT AUGUSTUS ABBEY (Photo: Peter Jolly)

 

Police are investigating the allegations.

One former pupil told the BBC that he told Fr Davidson personally of the abuse but the monks remained in the Abbey. Fr Davidson is the only surviving headmaster of the school.

In a statement issued to the BBC, Fr Davidson offered his sympathies to former pupils for any historic abuse and said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of the allegations.

He added: “I do not recall them being reported to me during my time as headmaster of Fort Augustus Abbey School.

“As investigations into matters at Fort Augustus Abbey School and Carlekemp Priory School are ongoing, I have stepped aside from my role as religious superior at St. Benet’s Hall.”

Earlier this month, one of Scotland’s most senior Catholics apologised to former pupils amid the claims.

Hugh Gilbert, the Bishop of Aberdeen, said: “It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former Abbey School a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.”

Anne Houston, chief executive of charity CHILDREN 1ST, said: “The focus here must always remain on what’s best for those who were abused in the past and what will make a positive difference to them; that and helping protect children now and in future by taking steps to minimise the risk of this ever happening again.

“It is crucial that the church fully and openly co-operates with the ongoing police investigation and passes on any and all relevant information it may have relating to any allegations of abuse at these schools.”

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Father Abbot Mark Dilworth in his beloved cloisters at Fort Augustus Abbey with Cardinal  Keith O’Brien

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Mr Slater – worked at both CH and Ampleforth – Ampleforth filled with paedophiles.

The name had come up in conversation at IHT’s cottage when JDS (Headmaster John Shippen) and IHT were discussing Mr. Slater, who had been a CH Housemaster and formerly a monk at Ampleforth.

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‘Forty’ abusers at Catholic school

November 28 2017

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is accused of being a “honeypot” for offenders

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is accused of being a “honeypot” for offenders

Forty monks and teachers have been accused of sexually abusing boys at a leading Roman Catholic school that allegedly became a “honeypot” for offenders, it was revealed yesterday.

Reports of child sex offences at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire were disclosed yesterday at a public hearing of an inquiry into the handling of abuse allegations by the Catholic church.

As a case study, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) is examining safeguarding policies at two fee-paying boarding schools run by the English Benedictine Congregation — Ampleforth, and Downside in Somerset. Riel Karmy-Jones, QC, counsel to the inquiry, said that it would consider the prevalence of child abuse within the Catholic church and the extent to which Catholic culture “has or does inhibit the proper investigation and prevention” of such crimes.

Since 1996 three monks and two lay teachers at Ampleforth have been convicted of sex offences against pupils, but Ms Karmy-Jones said that the inquiry had been notified of multiple allegations against about 40 monks and teachers.

In an opening statement on behalf of 29 abuse survivors Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, the law firm, said that the “temptation to cover up” such crimes was “particularly acute in institutions associated with the Roman Catholic Church”. He said: “Where reputation is key to an organisation’s existence, there is likely to be an almost overwhelming desire to find some way of avoiding the bad publicity associated with child sex abuse.” Shared awareness among child abusers that their misconduct would be covered up, or dealt with in-house, explained why “some institutions become honeypots where multiple offenders operate”.

Mr Scorer urged the inquiry to consider recommending a change in the law to make failure to report abuse a criminal offence.

On behalf of 14 victims and survivors, David Enright said that it was “very difficult to explain” to a non-Catholic “the power and depth of influence the Catholic church exerts over its members. The abusers were not only men in positions of trust; they were seen by the abused, and their families, as spokesmen for the God they worship. It is hard to imagine a greater hold that a child abuser could have over his victim.”

Matthias Kelly, QC, counsel for Ampleforth, said that the school and the abbey wanted “to apologise for the hurt, injury, distress and damage done to those who were abused as a result of our failings”. He said that the school’s policy today was one of “full, transparent and immediate co-operation with the statutory agencies”.

For Downside and the English Benedictine Congregation, Kate Gallafent, QC, said that the Catholic church was committed to giving the inquiry “its full co-operation. The congregation expresses profound shame that any child has been the victim of sexual abuse whilst in the care of the schools connected with its abbeys.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/forty-abusers-at-catholic-school-w75b7wfjg

Former pupils tell inquiry of sexual abuse by priests at Ampleforth College

Boys as young as six allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted at Roman Catholic school in Yorkshire, inquiry into child abuse hears

29 Nov 2017

Priests at a leading Roman Catholic school abused boys as young as six, including beatings and sexual assaults, the national inquiry into child abuse has heard.

Former pupils at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire gave evidence to a hearing in London on Wednesday, and written statements by other former pupils were read.

Many of the allegations centred on two priests, Piers Grant-Ferris who was jailed for two years in 2006 for 20 counts of indecent assault on boys in his care, and another priest referred to as RCF4.

One witness who spent 11 years at Ampleforth College and its preparatory school Gilling Castle from 1965 to 1976, said RCF4 had treated him “disgracefully”. “He was physically violent from the outset… I was physically and psychologically abused,” he told the hearing. RCF4 had been “nasty, cruel and physically violent towards me”.

In his second year, when the witness was eight years old, he said Grant-Ferris would walk behind boys sitting at long refectory tables for meals and select children for beatings. “If he stopped behind you and tapped you, then you knew it was you. If he stopped behind someone else and tapped them, one thing that disturbs me to this day is the feeling of relief that it wasn’t going to be me,” he said.

Once he was beaten in the chapel confessional by the priest after being told to take off his clothes. “It was always with his hands … and his hands would always linger on one’s bare bottom after each smack.”

On another occasion, the witness said Grant-Ferris told him to undress and lie face down on the priest’s bed. “He proceeded to take my temperature rectally. I didn’t even know people could have their temperatures taken rectally, I’d only ever had a thermometer put in my mouth. I begged him not to do it, because I didn’t know what was happening, but he continued anyway. I think technically that was a form of rape.”

Grant-Ferris, the son of a Tory peer, was “the full authority figure” the witness told the hearing. At the school, there were “sexual overtones and currents all the time”, he added.

After he left school, the witness suffered a “total psychological collapse” which lasted seven or eight years. “I wasn’t able to do anything, I couldn’t function.”

He said he believed that Basil Hume, who was abbot of Ampleforth Abbey for 13 years until appointed archbishop of Westminster in 1976, had been aware of abuse at the schools. “I have no doubt he knew exactly what was going on at the time.”

Another witness, who was sent to Gilling Castle at the age of six, told the hearing that he and other boys would cry under their blankets at night as monks wearing long black robes patrolled the dormitories. Grant-Ferris was known as “Pervy Piers” among the children, he said.

According to yet another statement, Grant-Ferris was “handsome and aristocratic” with a perpetual mood of excitement.

This witness also described how another teacher had put his hand down the boy’s trousers “to check my breathing” when he was auditioning for the choir. As a result of his experiences, he said: “I became a very quiet child who didn’t talk to people much.”

The inquiry also heard from a female former pupil at Ampleforth College, who left the school in 2010. She said that a music teacher, Dara De-Cogan, had sexually abused her over a period of years. De-Cogan was jailed for 28 months earlier this year pleading guilty to 10 charges of engaging in sexual activity while in a position of trust.

The witness said that he had groomed her from the age of 13, and his abuse resulted in her self-harming. “I thought I deserved to be punished somehow for what I was doing … [self-harming] gave me a sense of numbness.”

On some occasions, De-Cogan gave her marks out of 10 for oral sex, she said. “He would comment on it as if it was a piece of homework.”

Child protection procedures at Ampleforth were “very poor”, she said. Because of earlier convictions of monks, the college had an “obsessive emphasis on the completion of paperwork, but common sense and looking at what was in front of their faces – that went by the wayside.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse began a three-week hearing on Monday focusing on the Benedictine schools of Ampleforth and Downside. In some cases, abusers were permitted to stay in their posts and allowed to have contact with children and other vulnerable individuals, the hearing was told earlier this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/29/former-pupils-tell-inquiry-of-sexual-abuse-by-priests-at-ampleforth-college?CMP=share_btn_tw

Former pupils tell inquiry of sexual abuse by priests at Ampleforth College

Boys as young as six allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted at Roman Catholic school in Yorkshire, inquiry into child abuse hears

29 Nov 2017

Priests at a leading Roman Catholic school abused boys as young as six, including beatings and sexual assaults, the national inquiry into child abuse has heard.

Former pupils at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire gave evidence to a hearing in London on Wednesday, and written statements by other former pupils were read.

Many of the allegations centred on two priests, Piers Grant-Ferris who was jailed for two years in 2006 for 20 counts of indecent assault on boys in his care, and another priest referred to as RCF4.

One witness who spent 11 years at Ampleforth College and its preparatory school Gilling Castle from 1965 to 1976, said RCF4 had treated him “disgracefully”. “He was physically violent from the outset… I was physically and psychologically abused,” he told the hearing. RCF4 had been “nasty, cruel and physically violent towards me”.

In his second year, when the witness was eight years old, he said Grant-Ferris would walk behind boys sitting at long refectory tables for meals and select children for beatings. “If he stopped behind you and tapped you, then you knew it was you. If he stopped behind someone else and tapped them, one thing that disturbs me to this day is the feeling of relief that it wasn’t going to be me,” he said.

Once he was beaten in the chapel confessional by the priest after being told to take off his clothes. “It was always with his hands … and his hands would always linger on one’s bare bottom after each smack.”

On another occasion, the witness said Grant-Ferris told him to undress and lie face down on the priest’s bed. “He proceeded to take my temperature rectally. I didn’t even know people could have their temperatures taken rectally, I’d only ever had a thermometer put in my mouth. I begged him not to do it, because I didn’t know what was happening, but he continued anyway. I think technically that was a form of rape.”

Grant-Ferris, the son of a Tory peer, was “the full authority figure” the witness told the hearing. At the school, there were “sexual overtones and currents all the time”, he added.

After he left school, the witness suffered a “total psychological collapse” which lasted seven or eight years. “I wasn’t able to do anything, I couldn’t function.”

He said he believed that Basil Hume, who was abbot of Ampleforth Abbey for 13 years until appointed archbishop of Westminster in 1976, had been aware of abuse at the schools. “I have no doubt he knew exactly what was going on at the time.”

Another witness, who was sent to Gilling Castle at the age of six, told the hearing that he and other boys would cry under their blankets at night as monks wearing long black robes patrolled the dormitories. Grant-Ferris was known as “Pervy Piers” among the children, he said.

According to yet another statement, Grant-Ferris was “handsome and aristocratic” with a perpetual mood of excitement.

This witness also described how another teacher had put his hand down the boy’s trousers “to check my breathing” when he was auditioning for the choir. As a result of his experiences, he said: “I became a very quiet child who didn’t talk to people much.”

The inquiry also heard from a female former pupil at Ampleforth College, who left the school in 2010. She said that a music teacher, Dara De-Cogan, had sexually abused her over a period of years. De-Cogan was jailed for 28 months earlier this year pleading guilty to 10 charges of engaging in sexual activity while in a position of trust.

The witness said that he had groomed her from the age of 13, and his abuse resulted in her self-harming. “I thought I deserved to be punished somehow for what I was doing … [self-harming] gave me a sense of numbness.”

On some occasions, De-Cogan gave her marks out of 10 for oral sex, she said. “He would comment on it as if it was a piece of homework.”

Child protection procedures at Ampleforth were “very poor”, she said. Because of earlier convictions of monks, the college had an “obsessive emphasis on the completion of paperwork, but common sense and looking at what was in front of their faces – that went by the wayside.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse began a three-week hearing on Monday focusing on the Benedictine schools of Ampleforth and Downside. In some cases, abusers were permitted to stay in their posts and allowed to have contact with children and other vulnerable individuals, the hearing was told earlier this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/29/former-pupils-tell-inquiry-of-sexual-abuse-by-priests-at-ampleforth-college?CMP=share_btn_tw

Top public school suspends child sex charges teacher

3 Mar 2017

THE head of music at a prestigious private school has been suspended following allegations he sexually assaulted a pupil three decades ago.

Sean Ambrose Farrell, 49, denied two charges of indecent assault and two charges of gross indecency when he appeared before York magistrates last week.

All four offences are alleged to have been committed against a child aged under 14 at the time at Ampleforth College’s junior school.

Farrell, of Riddings Road, Ilkley, was released on bail on condition that he has no unsupervised contact with children aged under 16.

He has been removed from his post at Wellington College, in Berkshire – which counts the late actor Sir Christopher Lee and Will Young among its alumni – several months ago after North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation.

A Wellington College spokesman said: “In line with our safeguarding procedures, Wellington suspended the member of staff concerned and excluded him from the school site as soon as it was made aware that the police were investigating these accusations.”

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/15132702.Top_public_school_suspends_child_sex_charges_teacher/

Ampleforth

Monk ‘who ran sex club involving young boys’ at country’s top Catholic School ‘remained in his job for eight years after allegations were first made’

Apr 5 2017

  • Father Jeremy Sierla allegedly ran ‘sex club’ for boys at Ampleforth College
  • He remained at Catholic school for eight years after allegations first made
  • Police told he would make pupils perform sex acts in their pyjamas 
  • Investigation began in 2004 but no charges were ever brought against him 

Detectives spoke to more than a dozen young men who attended the school’s Junior House between 1990 and 1993 when Father Jeremy was housemaster.

Some recalled the monk whipping boys’ bottoms with his habit, encouraging the pupils to tie him up, showering naked with them and putting his hands under their duvets, the Times reported.

Photos and video clips – none indecent – of Ampleforth pupils were found on Father Jeremy’s computer, including one of a 12-year-old boy holding a rose in his mouth.

Father Sierla, 59, lived and worked at £30,000-a-year college, pictured, until 2012, despite accusations first being made against him eight years previously

The investigation was triggered when the same boy, in his early 20s by 2004, made allegations to police about abuse he claimed Father Jeremy had subjected him to.

The monk was not charged after prosecutors ruled there was insufficient evidence against him, and the CPS said the case file was destroyed years ago, the Times reported.

Father Jeremy continued to work in the abbey shop from 2004 to 2012 and posed for photographs to promote Ampleforth’s own brand Abbey Beer.

A music teacher, Dara de Cogan, who joined Ampleforth in 2004 was jailed last week for sexually abusing a female student during violin lessons.

An police investigation was launched into his conduct at the Yorkshire Catholic school, pictured, in 2004 but no charges were ever brought against him

A school spokesman said that Father Jeremy’s continued presence at Ampleforth was approved at a meeting of safeguarding professionals in 2004 and that his case was reviewed again in 2007 by an independent safeguarding commission.

It took a further five years before the Department for Education (DfE)told Ampleforth he should not be allowed on school grounds. 

TheDfE said that it was unable to discuss individual cases but stressed it was ‘paramount that children are protected at school and that there are robust safeguards in place’.

It added: ‘Where schools fail to meet standards, we will not hesitate to take action.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4384898/Monk-ran-sex-club-young-boys-Catholic-School.html

Fr Denis Chrysostom Alexander

Fort Augustus School

Monk accused of Fort Augustus Abbey abuse arrested in Sydney

23 January 2017

A former Catholic monk accused of child abuse at a Scottish school has been arrested in Australia.

Father Denis “Chrysostom” Alexander was one of several monks accused of abusing boys at the former Fort Augustus Abbey boarding school in the Highlands.

The BBC has learned he has been remanded in custody in Sydney pending his extradition back to Scotland to face trial.

The Crown Office here said it would not comment on legal matters elsewhere.

Father Alexander has always denied the allegations.

In 2013, he was confronted by BBC Scotland in Sydney as part of a documentary which prompted a major police investigation.

Now, three and a half years after that programme, that investigation has taken a significant turn with the former Benedictine monk’s arrest.

He will face a further hearing on Wednesday at the local court in New South Wales, where it will emerge if he will oppose the extradition or not. He will also be entitled to apply for bail.

One of Father Alexander’s accusers, Hugh Kennedy, has previously spoken of his frustration at the length of time it has taken the Scottish authorities to request the extradition of the former monk who is now 80.

One other former Fort Augustus monk is due to face trial in Scotland soon for a series assaults, whilst a further seven cases remain under consideration by the Crown Office in Scotland.

Fr Alexander was returned by the Catholic Church to Australia in 1979, after allegations of abuse were made by another Fort Augustus Abbey pupil, who the BBC has also spoken to.

No report to the police was made, and no warnings were provided about his alleged offending behaviour, to the Church in Australia where Fr Alexander continued as a priest for a further 20 years or more.

He was stripped of his priestly faculties in 2013 after the BBC programme.

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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/monks-extradition-blocked-in-child-abuse-inquiry-x7tmpr2lbhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/14/fugitive-london-priest-arrested-kosovo

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https://goodnessandharmony.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/ian-beer-cbe-supporter-of-paedophile-bishop-peter-ball-invitation-to-margaret-thatchers-christmas-eve-party-with-jimmy-savile-and-others/

Cardinal George Pell accused of sexually abusing two choirboys, book claims

Vatican’s financial chief, who has always denied wrongdoing, faces fresh allegations of abuse, relating to his time as archbishop of Melbourne

Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, is accused of abusing two boys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s

New allegations of child abuse are being levelled against Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s financial chief and the most senior figure in the Australian Catholic church.

Fairfax Media has reported claims contained in a new book, Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, that he sexually abused two choirboys at St Patrick’s cathedral after becoming archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

The author Louise Milligan first flagged these claims on the ABC’s 7.30 Report in July last year. But according to Fairfax Milligan’s book, to be released on Monday, contains details of the accusations that have not been made public before.

After the 7.30 Report Pell accused the ABC of conducting a “scandalous smear campaign.”

Cardinal Pell’s office issued a statement on Saturday saying the cardinal had “not been notified by the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions or Victoria police of the status of their investigations, which have been underway since at least February 2016.”

“Cardinal Pell will not seek to interfere in the course of justice by responding to the allegations made by Melbourne University Press (publisher of Milligan’s book) and media outlets today, other than to restate that any allegations of child abuse made against him are completely false,” the statement said.

“He repeats his vehement and consistent denials of any and all such accusations, and stands by all the evidence he has given to the royal commission.”

The boys, students at St Kevin’s College, sang in the cathedral choir and were allegedly abused by the archbishop in a room somewhere in the precincts of the cathedral. They left the choir and the school shortly afterwards.

Milligan claims one of the choirboys died of a drug overdose in 2014. His mother was subsequently told by the second boy that they had been abused by Pell when they were teenagers at the cathedral.

Milligan writes that both spoke to the Sano taskforce established to investigate allegations that emerged during a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria and the later royal commission into child abuse.

Pell has now been accused of abusing boys at three stages of his career: as a seminarian, a priest and as archbishop of Melbourne.

He has denied all these allegations on a number of occasions. No charges have ever been laid against him in relation to them. The cardinal, prefect of the secretariat for the economy at the Vatican, has stated that he willingly co-operated with the detectives of the Victoria police when they interviewed him in Rome in October last year.

Sano has also investigated allegations that as a young priest Pell abused boys in the swimming pool of his hometown Ballarat. Pell also denies these allegations.

Milligan writes that Pell and his defenders have been able to “bat off or gloss over” the swimming pool allegations by casting them as “horseplay or a bit of rough and tumble … The story of [the choirboys] has no such ambiguity. If these allegations are true, they point to utter, sinful hypocrisy.”

Citing ill health, Pell declined to return to Australia to give evidence to the royal commission in person last year and instead gave evidence by videolink from Rome. In February this year the Australian senate called on the cardinal to return home “to assist the Victorian police and office of public prosecutions with their investigation into these matters.”

Pell dismissed the parliamentary resolution as “an interference on the part of the Senate in the due process of the Victoria Police investigation.”

According to reports, the police have now twice sent briefs of evidence concerning Pell to the Victorian office of public prosecutions.

The Guardian is not claiming Cardinal Pell is guilty of any allegations of sex abuse, only that they have been investigated by police.

Operation Sano continues.

The Guardian contacted the Vatican, Pell’s office in Rome and his office in Australia for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/13/cardinal-george-pell-accused-of-sexually-abusing-two-choirboys-book-claims?CMP=share_btn_tw

May 17 2018

Ballarat in Western Victoria became an epidemic of clerical paedophilia in the late 20th century. The dark tragedy affects thousands of lives to this day. It is widely acknowledged the Catholic Church protected its worst offenders and moved them on to prey on new unsuspecting communities. But how could offending on this scale have failed to draw the attention of local authorities? Who was protecting whom?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ballarats-children/news-story/33580594d14a97741e8cf4ded22179ba

Cardinal George Pell ‘to be CHARGED over child sex abuse allegations’ sending shockwaves through the Catholic Church

Cardinal Pell is not just Australia’s most senior cleric, he is one of the highest-ranking officials in the Catholic world.

For two decades, he has been a frontline figure in the Church’s debate over controversial issues such as homosexuality, Aids and stem cell research.

He has also handled the Church’s official response to allegations of sexual abuse within its Australian ranks during a series of inquiries.

He gave evidence via video link to a Royal Commission into abuse last year.

It is hard to overstate, therefore, the significance of the decision to press charges against him.

When he returns to face those charges in an Australian court, every second will be scrutinised not just by the Australian press, but by members of Catholic congregations across the globe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40439489

  • Cardinal George Pell will reportedly be summoned to Australia by police
  • The summons is believed to be related to a child sex abuse investigation  
  • Authorities are expected to announce the possible charges this morning

Cardinal George Pell is expected to be charged over child sex abuse allegations.

It is understood Cardinal George Pell will be summonsed to Australia from Rome in relation to a child sex investigation by Victoria police.

The summons will be issued today to the 76-year-old head of finances for the Vatican, according to The Australian.

Authorities are expected to provide additional details on the investigation and possible charges this morning.

It is not clear whether the cardinal will return home from Europe or if he will be extradited to face the charges.

Cardinal George Pell is expected to be charged over child sex abuse allegations (pictured eating in Italy)

Cardinal George Pell is expected to be charged over child sex abuse allegations (pictured eating in Italy)

Cardinal Pell will be summoned to Australia from Rome in relation to a child sex investigation by Victoria police
Cardinal Pell will be summoned to Australia from Rome in relation to a child sex investigation by Victoria police

Cardinal Pell will be summoned to Australia from Rome in relation to a child sex investigation by Victoria police

Cardinal Pell appeared via video-link for a public hearing of Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission in early 2015.

When he was asked to fly to Australia to appear in person, he declined, citing health problems.

The Cardinal was interviewed by three detectives from the taskforce in Rome in October 2016, who updated the evidence.

He has strongly denied the allegations of abuse.

The Office of Public Prosecutions submitted a second brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the police last month, according to The Herald Sun.

The summary said charges could be laid against Pell based on the evidence but that it was up to the to decide if they wanted to or not.

The Sano taskforce, which investigates allegations of sexual abuse, has been investigating Cardinal Pell since 2016

The Sano taskforce, which investigates allegations of sexual abuse, has been investigating Cardinal Pell since 2016

Police could be powerless to make Cardinal Pell return to Australia because he is so high up in the Vatican that he has diplomatic immunity.

Cardinal Pell was appointed to the Vatican’s Secretariat of Economy in 2014, the third highest ranked position within the church.

His high ranking grants him diplomatic immunity in Australia, meaning he cannot be forced to attend court or provide information, according to legal experts.

New South Wales state parliament member David Shoebridge told the Newcastle Herald in May that Australia had an extradition treaty with Italy, but it did not include the Vatican.

‘[Australia] hasn’t managed in 44 years to get one in place with the tiny pretend nation-state of the Vatican that exists wholly within Rome,’ he said.

‘This is why George Pell can’t be forced back to face questioning.’

Victoria Police will not comment on reports Cardinal George Pell is to be charged by summons over historic child sex abuse allegations.

 


More protected paedophiles – Thaddeus Kotik of Caldey Island

Another protected Benedictine paedophile – Thaddeus Kotik of Caldey Island

Prince Charles HRH The Prince of Wales meets monks Father Robert, Brother Gabriel, and Acting Abbot Father Daniel during his visit to Caldey Island in 1997

Image result for prince charles caldey island

HRH The Prince of Wales meets Mrs Veronica Cattini as she works in the Post Office on Caldey Island today (Saturday). Photo Barry Batchelor/PA. July 26, 1997

Priest jailed for child abuse images lived on scandal-hit Caldey Island

Exclusive: revelations mean that four men convicted or accused of sexual offences against children lived or stayed on tiny monastic Welsh island

Father John Shannon, who was subsequently caught on the mainland with pictures of children as young as nine, lived on the island off the Welsh coast for nine months.

Father John Shannon, who was subsequently caught on the mainland with pictures of children as young as nine, lived on the island off the Welsh coast for nine months. Photograph: Archant Cambs/Archant

A priest who was jailed for downloading hundreds of pictures of child sexual abuse is the latest offender to be identified as having close links with the monastic island of Caldey, which is at the centre of a growing scandal.

Father John Shannon, who was subsequently caught on the mainland with pictures of children as young as nine, lived on the island off the Welsh coast for nine months.

The revelation means that four men convicted or accused of sexual offences against children have now been identified as having lived or stayed on Caldey and will increase pressure for an inquiry.

In November the Guardian revealed a string of allegations against a monk, Thaddeus Kotik, dating back to the 1970s and 80s. Kotik was a member of the Cistercian order of Benedictine monks and lived in the monastery on Caldey Island from 1947 until his death in 1992.

It later emerged that police are investigating a second man over accusations of sexual abuse on the island during the same period and that a sex offender called Paul Ashton hid there while on the run from police. Ashton was finally caught on the island in 2011, taken back to the mainland and jailed.

The abbot, Daniel van Santvoort, has confirmed that Shannon, lived on the island in 2008 and 2009.

Shortly afterwards, in 2010, police found 740 indecent images of children on a computer that he had downloaded while working as a lecturer at a Catholic seminary in county Durham. Three of the images were “level five” – of the most serious nature – and 75 were level four.

Shannon’s barrister argued at his client’s sentencing hearing that he had never had a chance to explore his sexuality and viewing the images became a compulsion.

Jailing him at Durham crown court for eight months, Judge Christopher Prince placed Shannon on the sex offender register for 10 years and banned him from working with children for life.

Van Santvoort told the Guardian that Shannon took on the role of priest on a trial basis in 2008 with the abbey’s approval after islanders asked for the parish church of St David’s to be re-opened.

“[Shannon] came with good references and took up residence in a cottage. During this period it was evident the role of a parish priest was not viable and he left the island within nine months of his arrival, in 2009,” the abbot said.

“We understand that some time later, whilst working on the mainland elsewhere in the UK, he was investigated by the police for offences committed on the mainland after he had left the island and was subsequently convicted.

“That inquiry did not involve any allegations of offences committed on the island and the police did not conduct any inquiries on the island in respect of this person. We understand therefore that he had no criminal convictions when he came to the island nor when he left.”

While Shannon was living on the island, Ashton was hiding from police there. Ashton was wanted after police found 5,000 images of child sexual abuse on his computer and in 2011 was found on Caldey , where he had been living under an assumed identity for seven years.

A whistleblower has told the Guardian that another convicted criminal, John Cronin, is suspected to have lived under an assumed name in a cottage owned by the monastery for a month in 2009.

Cronin was jailed in 1992 for sexually assaulting an adult Conservative party volunteer. One of his modi operandi was to pose as a priest.

The source said the man they believe to be Cronin left the island suddenly, taking keys to a property and owing money after he was recognised by a monastery employee from online photographs.

Cronin had allegedly requested through the abbey to stay at a monastery property on the island over winter.

However, Van Santvoort said the abbey did not know of Cronin’s alleged stay.

“We have no knowledge of this person whatsoever. The name is completely unfamiliar to us,” he said.

Thaddeus Kotik and two children on Caldey Island.
Thaddeus Kotik and two children on Caldey Island. Photograph: Supplied

Caldey Abbey settled civil claims by six women in March this year and Van Santvoort has publicly apologised for the abbey’s failure to report Kotik to police despite its knowledge of his offences.

Another six women and a man have since approached the Guardian alleging abuse by Kotik.

The Conservatives’ children’s spokesman in the Welsh assembly, Darren Millar, has called on the Welsh government to launch an investigation into Caldey Island.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/12/priest-jailed-for-child-abuse-images-lived-on-scandal-hit-caldey-island?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

and also on Caldey  island – paedophile Paul Ashton who was in charge of their internet – found with 5000 images


Sex offender hid in Caldey Island abbey for seven years

24 Nov 2017

Paul Ashton was found while on the run after his image was posted on a Crimestoppers Most Wanted list

A sex offender lived in the abbey on Caldey Island for seven years while on the run from police until he was found in 2011, taken back to the mainland and jailed.

Paul Ashton lived among the Cistercian monks on the private island off the Pembrokeshire coast in south-west Wales as police searched for him after finding thousands of images of child abuse on his computer. Ashton was finally found after his image appeared on a Crimestoppers Most Wanted gallery.

Caldey Abbey is at the centre of a scandal after the Guardian revealed a string of allegations against a monk called Thaddeus Kotik dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

The abbey has been keen to emphasise that the Kotik allegations are of a historical nature and no members of the current community were on the island at the time. But victims claim there is at least one monk still alive who knew Kotik and say the abbot himself knew Kotik from 1990, two years before the monk died in 1992.

The fact that Ashton, a suspected sex offender wanted by the police, was able to live at the abbey so recently and for so long will cause huge concern.

The current head of the abbey, Daniel van Santvoort, has been abbot since 1999.

Following the Guardian’s revelations about Kotik, whistle-blowers came forward to describe how Ashton lived on the island under the name Robert Judd.

Ashton had been arrested by police in West Sussex in 2004 when officers executed a warrant at his address in Bracklesham Bay. He was given bail while police examined his computers. Officers found more than 5,000 images of children but he had vanished when they returned.

At that time, a man in his 50s calling himself Robert appeared on Caldey. Whistleblowers said Ashton arrived on the island as a monastery guest in 2004 but stayed and moved in.

“When Robert arrived, he offered to help and made himself indispensable,” a whistleblower said. “He operated the island’s satellite internet and phone system, managed online accommodation bookings and the accounts and worked in the mail room. He put himself in an ideal position.”

They said that “Robert” changed his phone number frequently, encrypted his emails and never left the island.

In May 2011, “Robert” further aroused the suspicion of the whistleblower by emailing him that he had “met another family” that included two young boys on the island and had invited them to his private quarters in the monastery.

Curious and worried, the whistleblower began investigating Ashton and discovered that a man called James Robert Judd was named as a director of a cleaning company called St Martins of Caldey, according to Companies House records.

The whistleblower carried on investigating. “ I just knew in my gut that something was wrong,” they said. Eventually an image appearing to be Robert was found on the Crimestoppers site. It named him as Paul Ashton.

“One evening we had a phone call telling us to look at a website and there [Robert] was, on the most wanted list,” he said. “I saved and printed the photo, showed it to the abbot and asked him who it was. He said: ‘That’s Robert of course.’ I asked if he was absolutely sure and he said: ‘Yes without a doubt’.”

Whistleblowers have passed on photographs they took of plainclothes police officers escorting Ashton to the boat Caldey Island II beside the island on 6 July 2011.

At Chichester crown court on 1 March, Ashton admitted possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children and was jailed for 30 months. The court was told he was found after an anonymous call was made to the Crimestoppers charity.

It heard that South Wales police arrested him in relation to the Sussex inquiry – and said that more computer equipment containing further images were found on his Caldey Island computers.

Speaking after Ashton’s conviction, DC David Midgley, of West Sussex CID, said: “Credit must go to the anonymous informant to Crimestoppers who became suspicious and rang in. Thanks to their actions, Ashton was finally brought to justice after spending nearly eight years in hiding.

“In each image, a child was a victim of crime. The length of the sentence shows how the justice system will punish those who download indecent images of children.”

The Guardian has sought comment from van Santvoort who is believed to be in France but has not yet received a reply.

Six women sued the abbey over the allegations against Kotik and another seven women have now come forward to the Guardian since the article exposed the offender last Saturday. The victims have welcomed calls for an inquiry into the protection of child sex offenders on the island.

Friends of Our Lady of Tintern
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The Patrons of the Project are:

Rt Revd Dom Paul Stonham OSB, Abbot of Belmont


Rt Revd Dominic Walker OGS, Bishop of Monmouth

Rt Revd Daniel van Santvoort OCSO, Abbot of Caldey

http://www.ourladyoftintern.co.uk/supportus.php?mnu=supportus

Dedication of the statue

On Sunday 9th September 2007 the statue was blessed and dedicated in a moving ceremony conducted jointly by the Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, and by Bishop Dominic Walker of Monmouth, Church in Wales. A very large crowd gathered for the occasion, in the region of 800 people.

Page 26, 10th November 1990

Home news

Satanic abuse ‘possible’

The belief of social workers that children in Nottingham who were sexually abused were also forced to take part in ritual practices connected with Satanism has now been supported by the director of the city’s social services department. In a report issued last week, Mr David White said that “on the basis of the children’s testimony it would be unwise not to accept the possibility that there were ritualistic elements to this case”. Nottingham Police strongly reject the suggestion that ritual practices played any part in the Broxtowe child abuse case, in which ten adults were jailed in February 1989 for offences of incest, indecent assault and cruelty against 23 children in the extended family; a view which Mr White originally shared.

The case became controversial when some of the children, who had been made wards of court after being sexually abused, started to describe experiences of a bizarre nature of which foster parents and social workers had no previous knowledge. They talked, among other things, of being burnt by sticks, of animals sacrificed and of drinking the blood, of witchcraft parties and even of other children being killed. A report commissioned by Mr White and the chief constable of Nottinghamshire, which appeared in December 1989, concluded that there was no evidence of Satanic abuse. It criticised the work of social workers concerned in the case who, it suggested, had unwittingly encouraged children to believe in and allege bizarre abuse.

The new report, which was expected to be approved on Wednesday by Nottinghamshire social services committee, follows intense media interest in the case and the disruption of working relationships between the police and social workers in the city. It praises the work of the specialist group of social workers concerned, and says that “the disclosures made by the children are unlikely to have been created in their minds by the social workers or foster parents”. Having read the diaries of the children involved, Mr White now supports the social workers’ view that even if the children had not suffered each incident physically they were made to believe that they had.

Mr White argues that the case is of national significance in that it challenges the conventional wisdom about how children should be listened to and how matters can be dealt with which are beyond existing knowledge. Mr White’s recommendations include the setting up of a joint police and social service body to review practices and procedures in the field of child protection; and the establishment by the Department of Health of a nationally co-ordinated research programme to monitor the problem and offer guidance.

Social workers in Manchester, who also had been criticised for encouraging children to make up stories of ritual abuse, were defended recently by the Anglican Bishop of Manchester, Stanley BoothClibborn (The Tablet, 6 October). Allegations of ritual abuse have also been made in Rochdale. Canon Dominic Walker, co-chairman of the Christian Deliverance Study Group, which trains Anglican and some Catholic exorcists, told The Tablet that the Churches are concerned and are holding meetings with social workers, police and psychiatrists. “People are fairly convinced that something is going on“, he said, “and that it is not just an invention of fundamentalism. What is not clear is whether it is a new development of Satanism or whether the people involved are paedophiles who are adding Satanic ritual to their practices.”

The secretary to the Committee for Social Welfare of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Mgr Michael Connelly, noted however that no evidence had been produced of ritual practices associated with child abuse. Only one diocese has informed him of such a case.

Source: archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/10th-november-1990/26/home-news

Caldey Island: Sex offender evaded justice at abbey

March 2012

A fugitive child sex offender fled to a Pembrokeshire island’s abbey to evade justice and remained there for seven years, it has been revealed.

Paul Ashton, from Sussex, went on the run in 2004 charged with possessing indecent images of children.

When he was discovered at Caldey Island in 2011, more indecent images were found on his computer in the monastery.

He was arrested and brought to justice after a visitor recognised him from a Crimestoppers “Most Wanted” list.

The revelation comes after it emerged six women have been paid compensation by Caldey Abbey after they were abused by a monk on Caldey Island in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since that information came to light last week, a further five women have come forward accusing Father Thaddeus Kotik of abusing them.

Allegations were made to the abbey in 1990 but complaints were not passed on to police.

Dyfed Powys Police was eventually made aware of the allegations in 2014 but could not prosecute Kotik as he died in 1992.

The current abbot, Brother Daniel van Santvoort, has apologised the complaints were not referred to police sooner.

Ashton is understood to have arrived on Caldey Island as a guest in 2004, but stayed and moved into the clock tower which overlooks the island.

He was provided with accommodation and food by the monks, who knew him by his alias Robert Judd.

A source said: “When Robert arrived he offered to help and made himself indispensable.

“He operated the island’s satellite internet and phone system, managed online accommodation bookings and the accounts and worked in the mail room.

“He put himself in an ideal position.”

Ashton had absconded from his home in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex after Sussex Police executed a search warrant and confiscated computers in 2004.

In July 2011, an anonymous call was made to Crimestoppers by someone who had seen Ashton’s face on its “Most Wanted” list, and he was arrested on the island.

Sussex Police said: “They recognised the picture as a man working in south Wales but under a different name… police were informed and local officers swiftly arrested him in relation to the Sussex inquiry.

“More computer equipment containing further images was also found.”

Ashton, then aged 59, pleaded guilty at Chichester Crown Court to possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children on his computers, hard drives and USB sticks.

He was jailed for 30 months in March 2012 and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

Caldey Abbey has been asked to comment.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42121382

Wanted paedophile hid in Welsh island monastery for seven years while on the run from police

25 Nov 2017
He aroused suspicion in 2011 when he emailed a whistleblower saying that he had ‘met another family’, including two young boys on Caldey Island and had invited them to his private quarters in the monastery.

Ashton was escorted off the island by plain-clothed police officers on July 6 2011. 

Appearing at Chichester Crown Court on March 1, he admitted possessing more than 5,000 indecent images of children and was jailed for 30 months.

The court heard that South Wales Police arrested Ashton in relation to Sussex Police’s inquiry and said more computer equipment containing indecent images was found on Caldey Island. 

Man with 5,000 child porn pictures is jailed

A 59-year-old man found with more than 5,000 indecent images of children has been jailed after almost eight years in hiding.

Paul Ashton, from Sussex, but of no fixed address, fled the area after he was arrested in 2004.

Ashton was only caught following a tip-off after he was featured on the Crimestoppers Most Wanted list.

He was discovered living in South Wales under an assumed name.

He has now been jailed for 30 months.

Ashton was initially arrested in 2004 after Sussex Police raided his home in Bracklesham Bay and recovered computer equipment.

He was arrested and bailed while officers analysed the hard drive.

His address was searched again a few months later with more computer equipment seized.

Police said all the computers contained numerous indecent images on the hard drive and USB sticks.

Indecent pictures

However, Ashton fled his home and did not answer bail. He was only traced in July last year after someone spotted his photo on the Most Wanted list.

South Wales Police were told and he was arrested, when more computer equipment with further indecent pictures of children was found.

He pleaded guilty at Chichester Crown Court to possessing more than 5,000 indecent images at a hearing on Thursday (March 1).

DC David Midgley, of West Sussex CID, said: “This case highlights how an individual’s criminality will catch up with them – whether it’s weeks, months or years later.

“Credit must go to the anonymous informant to Crimestoppers who became suspicious and rang in. Thanks to their actions, Ashton was finally brought to justice after spending nearly eight years in hiding.

“Ashton recognises that in each image, a child was a victim of crime.

“The length of the sentence shows how the justice system will punish those who download indecent images of children.”

Ashton was also given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and will sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.


Paddy Lyons has written a book about the four years he spent inside Caldey Island’s monastery.

when back in Britain as a 26-year-old, despite a new girlfriend and a three-year traineeship with Unilever in Birkenhead.

“I thought I had to try this lifestyle out because it had never gone away and though I first tried the hermit lifestyle of the Carthusian Order I ended up on Caldey Island,” said Mr Lyons, now 74.

He has since been a social worker, a Financial Times journalist, a press officer for what is now the charity Action For Children, has got married to wife Elsie and raised five children in Barnet

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-198378512/in-the-swinging-sixties-paddy-couldn-t-wait-for-a
Action for Children

Government IT expert is caught with child porn stash… but why did Downing Street keep it secret for six months?

2 August 2014

Not Patrick Rock – Sebastian Crump

Worked for the Cabinet Office – he received promotion at Cabinet Office while he was being investigated

He has spent a decade working in technology and communications for Government offices, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Central Office of Information

He was arrested in January – Patrick Rock was arrested in February

Crump landed a government job after working as a children’s charity website manager, Action for Children, which helps support vulnerable and neglected children, between 1998 and 1999.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2713810/Government-digital-chief-caught-child-porn-stash-did-Downing-Street-secret-six-months.html

Father Paul Satori came to me first; his attitude was totally different from the priest who I had first gone for counseling. He was very understanding and gentle; his concern was that homosexuality was still a criminal offense in the United Kingdom.

The meeting with my parent’s local doctor lasted for about an hour, I was told a lot of young men went through a period in their teenage years of confusion about sexuality and, with the right treatment, I would soon be a normal heterosexual man.

Two days later, against my will and to my horror, I was sectioned in a psychiatric hospital and forced to undergo electric shock treatment. I was kept in a private ward in the psychiatric hospital for three months while I underwent a series of shock treatments. After leaving the hospital, feeling very confused and lonely, Father Satori arranged for me to go on retreat for two weeks at the Caldey Island monastery before returning to university.

https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-227279152/catholic-hiv-positive-and-one-of-god-s-children

Thaddeus Kotik

Revealed: monk who abused children on ‘crime free’ Caldey Island for decades

17 November 2017

Abuse by a monk who preyed on girls on a tiny island off the coast of Wales was covered up in the 70s and 80s

Kotik offended against the six girls between 1972 and1987, though the women believe there may be many more victims, over many more years.

A former soldier who fought in the Free Polish army during the second world war, Kotik moved to the island in 1947, joined the strict Cistercian order and was ordained a priest in 1956. He lived on the island until his death in 1992. It appears he was never questioned by police and that they were not informed until 2014.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1480675/Naive-monks-sacked-cook-and-his-wife-unfairly-tribunal-rules.html

In the late 80s, when she and her family were residents of the island, Emily, then five years old, told the then Abbot Robert O’Brien – who died in 2009 – about Kotik assaulting her. The abbot ordered Kotik to stay inside the monastery enclosure, but Kotik regularly escaped from the monastery grounds and continued to abuse children.

 

Abbot Robert O’Brien

The girls reported the offences to the principal of their school, St Phillip’s Christian College in Newcastle, New South Wales in the late 1980s. According to Charlotte the deputy principal Richard Rule, who now runs a child care centre, prayed for the students and told them they “didn’t need to talk of this again because God has forgiven everyone”.

Also in 2014, Charlotte emailed the current abbot of Caldey Abbey, Brother Daniel van Santvoort, seeking an acknowledgment of the crimes committed against her and her sister. “The effect that this abuse has had on me has been quietly catastrophic,” she wrote.

No secret

But it wasn’t the first time van Santvoort had heard allegations against Kotik. In a response to Charlotte he wrote: “I have heard occasionally about this serious matter as regards Fr Thaddeus”.

Van Santvoort told her the monastery knew about the monk’s offences and that he had been reprimanded and banned from contact with islanders and visitors in the 1980s, but had not been reported to police. “I am fully aware now of this terrible criminal offence and Fr Thaddeus should have there and then been handed over to the police – something that never happened.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/18/revealed-monk-who-abused-children-on-free-caldey-island-for-decades

The island was bought by Anglican benedictine monks in 1906 and it was this group that built the monastery and abbey which sits in the centre of the island.

Now it is home to about 40 residents and a group of about 18 Cistercian monks.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2244669/caldey-island-monks/

Caldey Island is three miles off Tenby and popular with day trippers in the summer.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/aug/26/caldey-island-independence-tenby-council

Caldey Island: police investigate second man over sexual abuse claims

Separate investigation comes after it was revealed that Cistercian monk allegedly abused at least 11 girls in 1970s and 80s

Detectives are investigating a second man over accusations of sexual abuse on Caldey Island after it was revealed that a Cistercian monk allegedly abused at least 11 girls in the 1970s and 80s.

Police said the alleged assault took place at about the same time, and the accused was visiting the island off Tenby in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales.

Officers refused to give further details because they said it would jeopardise the investigation, but said he was not a member of the abbey or abbey staff.

The Guardian reported on Friday that six women claimed they were abused as children by Father Thaddeus Kotik.

Since then, it has emerged that five others allegedly suffered abuse, and earlier this week, the head of Caldey Abbey issued an apology acknowledging that allegations of serious child sexual abuse made against Kotik should have been passed on to police.

Dyfed-Powys police are aware of allegations by eight women – the six original complainants and two more who have since come forward. A spokesperson said: “Following the recent media reporting of sexual abuse at Caldey Island, police received two further reports of non-recent sexual abuse.

“They relate to offences committed during the same time period (between 1977 and 1987) and with the same named perpetrator, Thaddeus Kotik. These crimes have been recorded and officers are in contact with the victims during the investigation and to offer specialist support.

“Police have also received one further report of a sexual assault by another male at Caldey Island around the same timeframe. The report has been made by one of the original six victims.

“This is being investigated separately to the Caldey Island abuse and concerns a man who was visiting Caldey Island at the time and no longer lives there. No further information can be released at present as it would jeopardise the investigation.”

Simon Thomas, a Plaid Cymru AM, said: “What is most troubling about this case is that the victims of sexual assault felt that they were not able to make a complaint at the time, and that complaints made were not dealt with properly. As a result the perpetrator was never brought to justice and children grew up bearing the weight of being a victim of these terrible crimes.

“Caldey Island is a landmark on the Welsh coast, and children and tourists visit there every day to learn about the abbey’s history. It’s important that people can visit there with confidence. ”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/23/caldey-island-police-investigate-second-man-sexual-abuse-allegations?CMP=share_btn_tw

Caldey Island: More monk sex abuse accusers speak out

 

  • 21 November 2017

Three more women have come forward alleging they were sexually abused by a monk on a Pembrokeshire island in the 1970s and 1980s.

A total of 11 women now claim Father Thaddeus Kotik abused them on Caldey Island when they were children.

A letter seen by BBC Wales shows Kotik’s abuse was reported to abbot Brother Robert O’Brien in 1990, but not to police.

Dyfed-Powys Police said it received reports of the abuse in 2014 and 2016.

The force investigated but could not prosecute as Kotik died in 1992.

Six women have already been paid compensation in an out-of-court settlement by Caldey Abbey following the sexual abuse claims.

But journalist Amanda Gearing, who has spoken to victims, said three more women now claim to have been sexually assaulted by Kotik.

One woman who reported her case to police on Monday told the Guardian she broke down and was unable to sleep for 36 hours after reading about Kotik’s abuse of others.

She said her abuse was “low level compared with others” but it happened when she was sat next to Kotik on a bench.

“He put his hand up my top. Then his hand went up my back and under my arms. I squirmed away from him and walked away. I didn’t go near him after that,” she said.

Another woman told the Guardian she and her two sisters were abused by Kotik, but claimed there was pressure by both the church and family for victims to “shut up”.

Kotik befriended families who regularly visited the island. After gaining the trust of parents he would babysit the children and sexually abuse them, court papers have suggested.

One of them, who has already spoken out about what happened, said she “bitterly regrets” her abuser was never jailed.

There are fears there could be more victims and calls have been made for an independent inquiry by the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42071238

 

Inquiry calls into abuse complaints on Caldey Island

21 Nov 2017

There are calls for an independent inquiry into allegations of historical sexual abuse at an abbey on Caldey Island off Pembrokeshire.

It’s understood six women were paid compensation following claims against a monk – Thaddeus Kotik in the 70s and 80s. But it’s feared there could be more potential victims.

Police say they did receive reports of historic sexual abuse but could not proceed with a prosecution because the monk died in 1992.

Now a support group, Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, says an independent investigation should take place and the abbey should apologise.

Six women have received an out of court settlement, after claims they were abused by the monk Father Thaddeus Kotik when they visited the island as children in the 1970s and 80s.

Three of them shared their experiences with Australian journalist Amanda Gearing:

The effect of the abuse on these women has been particularly severe – partly because of the threats made against them which separated them from their parents.

The offender told them that if the children reported what was happening their parents would not want them anymore and would leave them on the island with him

– Journalist Amanda Gearing

It is claimed Brother Thaddeus Kotik groomed, and sexually assaulted the children of families staying on the island and although they spoke out at the time, no formal action was taken.

It wasn’t until almost thirty years later the crimes were brought to the attention of the police. By that time, Kotik had been dead for two decades.

Dyfed-Powys Police told ITV News that “Appropriate professional support was offered and the matter was drawn to a close.”

Dyfed-Powys Police can confirm that in 2014 and 2016 it received reports of non-recent sexual abuse that occurred at Caldey Island with the named offender being the deceased Thaddeus Kotik.

These reports were recorded as crimes and victims contacted by police. During the investigation, information was obtained to confirm that the perpetrator was deceased and therefore a prosecution was not possible.

Dyfed-Powys Police always encourages anyone who has suffered abuse to come forward and report it by calling 101.

– Dyfed Powys Police

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Sally Holland, says although action should be taken, it’s too early to call for an enquiry.

“I’ve been in contact with the National Catholic Safeguarding Advice Service and also have written directly to the abbey on Caldey Island to seek reassurance that they are following the Catholic churches national safeguarding policies and procedures on child protection.”

The victims believe they’re not alone. and that Kotik – who lived on the island for 45 years – abused others.

ITV News has contacted Caldey Abbey for comment but has not yet had a response.

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2017-11-21/inquiry-calls-into-abuse-complaints-on-caldey-island/

Dyfed-Powys Police

Married chief constable used police force credit card to entertain his mistress – and skipped meetings to see her

Terry Grange, a married father of three, retired from his post after 30 years’ service,  at Dyfed-Powys Police last November after the woman made a series of damaging allegations.

She said that they had exchanged ‘politically insensitive’ and ‘sexually explicit’ emails between his force computer system and her account.

Yesterday, the IPCC upheld all four of the

allegations it investigated. Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr Grange, 57, for misconduct in a public office or obtaining monies by deception.

He will not face a police misconduct inquiry because he is retired.

Grange had regular dealings with the Government as spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on child protection and the management of sex offenders.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/married-chief-constable-used-police-force-credit-card-to-entertain-his-mistress-and-skipped-meetings-6631120.html


Caldey Abbey apology over handling of monk sex abuse claims

22 Nov 2017

An abbey at the centre of child sexual abuse allegations has apologised that claims against one of its monks were not passed to police.

Eleven women allege Father Thaddeus Kotik abused them on Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, in the 1970s and 1980s.

A letter shows Kotik’s abuse was reported to abbot Brother Robert O’Brien in 1990, but not to police.

Caldey Abbey said they should have been reported, adding: “This clearly did not happen and we apologise.”

In a statement, current abbot Brother Daniel van Santvoort said: “It was with great sadness and regret that we heard allegations of historical sexual abuse involving Father Thaddeus who died in 1992.

“Any allegations of child abuse should be reported to the appropriate authorities and investigated. This clearly did not happen and we apologise.”

Brother Daniel said at the time the incidents were alleged to have taken place, the present Caldey Abbey Community was not on the island, which exacerbated the difficulties of the claims.

He said he knew nothing of the allegations when he first came to the island in 1990, or when he later became abbot in 1999, but said he forwarded the matter to police and the abbey’s solicitors in 2014 when he was contacted by a claimant.\

Brother Daniel said: “I acted at every step with compassion and empathy, and expressed my regret and sorrow at any such abuse. I flew to Australia to meet two claimants expressly to apologise.”

He continued: “I am truly sorry that my predecessors did not report allegations to the police and I am sorry that as an abbey, it has taken so long to compensate for these claims.

“Caldey Abbey has worked to ensure this can never be repeated. We now have robust child protection procedures in place on the island including a child protection coordinator.”

“As abbot, I very much regret any harm caused to any layperson as a result of the actions of one of my community, and strive to ensure that every visitor to Caldey enjoys only peace, comfort and the feeling of wellbeing,” he added.

Brother Daniel said the abbey was working with Children’s Commissioner for Wales, however Sally Holland has denied that is the case.

She has advised anyone with concerns to contact police or the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Truth Project, so allegations can be considered.

Brother Daniel added the abbey would fully cooperate with its inquiry and any other investigation.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42087525

 

THE LEADING CATHOLIC SCHOOL WITH A ‘TERRIBLE LEGACY’

St Benedict’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading Catholic schools has been blighted by a ‘terrible legacy’ of sex abuse by paedophile priests.

Soper is one of seven senior figures either convicted or accused of preying on pupils at the £15,000-a-year private school during the last 25 years.

Former headmaster Christopher Cleugh admitted the school ‘could have, and should have, done more’ to protect victims following a damning 2011 inquiry which concluded that Ealing Abbey monks had to lose their control of the school.

TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS AND CONVICTIONS:

1992: The junior school’s former headmaster Father David Pearce is accused of sexually abusing a boy, but police take no further action.

2001: Former abbot Rev Dom Martin Shipperlee receives complaint about Pearce and makes police aware of it.

2003: Former middle school master John Maestri admits three counts of indecent assault against two pupils between 1980 and 1984.

2005: Maestri pleads guilty to another count of indecent assault relating to a sex attack in 1982.

2006: The High Court awards damages to one of Pearce’s victims.

2007: Rev Shipperlee allows Pearce to return to Ealing Abbey as bursar. Pearce sexually assaults a child within months.

2007: Father Stanislaus Hobbs, part of St Benedict’s middle school staff between 1969-1984, stands trial for one count of indecent assault in 1984 but is cleared by a jury.

2008: Former middle school headmaster Father Anthony Gee is accused of caning a boy on his bare buttocks but no further action is taken.

2009: Father David Pearce is charged with 22 counts of indecent assault against six boys between 1975 and 2007 – prosecutors accepted his guilty pleas to 11 of the charges.

2009: Maestri admits one count of indecent assault between 1979 and 1981.

2010: Father Gregory Chillman is accused of one indecent assault between 1975-76, but no further action was taken.

2010: Two female pupils at another school complain about Father Chillman’s ‘inappropriate’ behaviour in 2004 and he is later put on restricted ministry and barred from access to children.

2010: St Benedict’s teacher John Skelton is convicted of indecent assaults against two pupils in 1983.

2011: Pearce is charged with four counts of indecent assault against another boy between 1977 and 1978, but he was cleared following a trial.

2011: Maestri is charged with three counts of indecent assault against another former pupil but is cleared by a jury.

2011: Former headmaster Christopher Cleugh apologises for ‘terrible legacy’ of sex abuse following damning inquiry by Lord Carlile.

2011: Father Andrew Soper withdraws £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and flies to Albania while on bail for sex offences against pupils.

2016: Deputy head of St Benedict’s Peter Allott, 37, is jailed for ‘getting hooked on child pornography’ and taking part in chemsex ‘paedophile sex parties’

2017: Soper convicted of 19 sex attacks on pupils at St Benedict’s in the 1970s and 1980s following an Old Bailey trial.



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