Berkshire: Former Teacher Jailed Over Abuse

A former French master at a prestigious boarding school was today jailed for six years and nine months for the sexual abuse of dozens of pupils.

Keith Cavendish-Coulson, 71, who now lives in Berkshire, preyed on the youngsters while working at the Terra Nova School in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire in the early 1970s - but escaped justice for four decades after a cover-up led by the then headmaster.

The harsh private preparatory school was run with a "brutal'' military regime and described as like something out of a Charles Dickens novel, as Cavendish-Coulson was jailed at Chester Crown Court.

But Cavendish-Coulson, then aged 30 to 32, would behave in a more friendly and approachable way than the other masters.

After befriending his victims he would molest them in classrooms, their dormitories and his private quarters, sometimes in the presence of other children, with his activities an open secret among the boys.

But despite complaints he was allowed to leave the school for ``health reasons'', and took up other private teaching posts, including offering his services to Eton College, the court heard.

Two separate police investigations in 1998 and 2005 stalled, the court heard.

Past pupils of the £13,000-a-year school include Olympic sailing gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie and David and Victoria Beckham's eldest son, Brooklyn.

Cavendish-Coulson of Crookham Common, near Newbury, admitted 42 offences of indecent assault against 24 boys aged between eight and 13, while working at the school between 1973 and 1975.

He also admitted a further offence of indecent assault against another child while working as a private tutor in the mid-1980s.

Jailing him, Judge Roger Dutton said: "It is a sad reflection on the attitudes of that time that even when complaints were made by parents no proper action was taken to investigate these grave allegations. That amounted to a shameful and abject failure to deal with serious sexual abuse upon boys.

"One cannot help but conclude that the reputation of the school meant more to those in authority than the exposure of wholesale sexual abuse by a member of staff on their premises.

"It is quite obvious that the impact of the defendant's behaviour has had a profound effect on them all.''

Cavendish-Coulson's abuse was uncovered after the father of one boy overheard his son talking about it and contacted the headmaster, Andrew Keith.

But Mr Keith concluded "nothing sinister'' had occurred, until weeks later the defendant was found in a "compromising position'' while tutoring another boy privately at a nearby house.

Cavendish-Coulson was allowed to resign on health grounds and the real reason covered up, though school governors and doctors were aware of the real situation but did not want to ``stir up trouble unnecessarily''.

The head wrote to one parent that police involvement would do "untold damage to the school'' and the "quicker we can forgive and forget the better''.

The defendant's name was however put on "List 99'' by the Department for Education and barred from working in state schools - though not, it appears from working in private schools or as a private tutor.

He faked references and worked as a private tutor in Surrey and for a number of schools until his past was found out.