Former PE Teacher In Norfolk Jailed

22 August 2017, 12:31 | Updated: 22 August 2017, 13:16

Lights on top of a police car

A former PE teacher of 30 years standing has been exposed as a "clandestine sex offender" who abused pupils since he was at teacher training college and has been jailed for five years.

Glyn Jones taught at two high schools in Norfolk before he moved to Australia, but was brought back to England for a trial at Norwich Crown Court.

The 57-year-old admitted seven counts of indecently assaulting girls under the age of 16 on the first day of his trial, and was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.

Judge Anthony Bate, sentencing, said the charges related to six girls who were aged between 13 and 16 years old at the time of Jones's offending between 1979 and 1996.

He said the offending ranged from kissing on the mouth to "much more serious", that all but one of the victims was a former pupil of Jones and that Jones first offended while aged 19 at teacher training college.

"Your victims were pupils at two Norfolk high schools where you taught physical education in the 1990s," said Judge Bate.

"Your misconduct towards them was a gross abuse of the trust placed in you by their parents, fellow members of staff and your employers."

He said the "enduring impact" on the women, who were "molested in this way as young teenage girls", was made plain in their statements to the court.

"It is a telling reflection that [one victim] refers to you throughout as Mr Jones," he said. "She recalls how you made her feel special, complimented her on her sporting skill and appeared interested and cared about her.

"Such observations could be made about many fine teachers who have followed this honourable profession with distinction over the years.

"However, for you it was a charade and a device.

"Gaining in turn the trust of [one victim] and then other similarly aged girls was the means by which you went on to exploit and abuse that relationship in the several ways described by the prosecution.

"You relied on them to keep secret what you had done to them and they each bore that burden for many years, while you continued to lead an outwardly respectable life as a man of apparent good character.

"In fact, as a consequence of your pleas to this indictment, you had been a clandestine sex offender since the age of 19, when you were a trainee teacher at college in Plymouth."

Jones, whose given address was in Upper Coomeera, a suburb on the Gold Coast of Australia in Queensland, near Brisbane, appeared in court dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and purple tie.

Judge Bate, jailing Jones for five years, told him: "You will plainly never teach or be responsible for children ever again."

The unshaven defendant, who has receding grey hair, spoke only to confirm his name and showed no reaction as he was led to the cells. His passport was handed in to the court.

Some of his victims were in court as he was jailed, and others watched from a videolink from outside the courtroom.