Dorset Half-Brother Of Senior MP Jailed For Abusing Boys

23 December 2014, 17:32

The Dorset half-brother of a senior Conservative MP has been jailed for 13 years for carrying out hundreds of sexual assaults on young boys.

Former teacher Charles Napier, 67, who is related to Maldon MP John Whittingdale, conducted a ``campaign of abuse'' at the school where he worked in the late 1960s and early 1970s, grooming and assaulting 21 victims aged as young as eight on scores of occasions.

Last month he pleaded guilty to 28 counts of indecent assault - including many covering ``multiple incidents'' - and one indecency charge in relation to those crimes.

Now he has admitted a further two separate historic allegations of indecent assault against two 13-year-old boys after he left the school, the first in 1979 and the second in 1983.

Napier, of Sherborne, stared straight ahead and betrayed no emotion as Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced him at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Napier joined the school, which cannot be named, after leaving university and when he was arrested last year he told police he already knew he was a paedophile at that time.

The judge said: ``I have no doubt that ... you sought that post because of the proximity you would have to boys.

``Within a very short time you were grooming those you had chosen, using the techniques of charm, flattery and the abuse of your power.

``The number of indecent assaults must be into the hundreds.''

The judge said some of the victims' lives had been ``dramatically damaged''.

He added: ``These offences...were committed by someone who had a special duty of care and who gravely abused that duty by grooming them for his own purposes.''

The court heard Napier's offending at the school was ``prolific'', with him targeting 21 different pupils aged between eight and 13 over a period of around two-and-a-half years.

He was said to have earned the nickname ``rapier Napier'' at school.

Peter Clement, prosecuting, said: ``The offences are characterised by a campaign of sexual abuse involving significant planning, grooming and abuse of many pupils.

``It was sexual abuse of particularly vulnerable victims. The defendant ensured each child's compliance and silence through grooming to the extent that he abused several of the victims many, many times.

``The defendant abused the high degree of trust placed in him by his colleagues, the children's parents and the children themselves and exploited his role for his own sexual gratification.''

The court heard Napier would give his victims treats including fizzy drinks and chocolate, often abusing them in a carpentry workshop, which, Mr Clement said, ``became something of his den''.

One victim was told by Napier ``don't be a baby'' while another suffered ``profound effects'' from being repeatedly abused and attempted suicide later in life, the court heard.

Some pupils were targeted as often as once a week, with one boy said to have been abused up to 100 times.

Napier abused some victims in the presence of other children, the court heard.

On two occasions he made a boy perform a sex act on him, telling the child: ``That's what grown-ups do.''

If those two offences occurred today Napier would have been charged with rape, the court heard.

It has now been revealed that Napier has twice previously been convicted of abuse against boys.

One boy made a complaint that resulted in Napier pleading guilty to indecent assaults on a total of five pupils who are not involved in this case, in 1972.

He was sentenced to a three year probation order. In another separate case he was jailed for nine months in 1995 after he was convicted of assaulting two children.

The two victims in the further charges Napier admitted, which did not take place at the school, contacted police after reading news coverage about their abuser's arrest earlier this year.

Napier told police he underwent electric shock treatment but it had no impact on his attraction to children.

The court heard that after he was dismissed from the school he went on to join the Paedophile Information Exchange as treasurer.

He said when interviewed that he felt ``ghastly'' and ``desperately sorry'', telling officers: ``I was a very young man, I was completely out of control and completely out of order, putting it about everywhere.''

Benjamin Hargreaves, for Napier, said in mitigation that the defendant is ``genuinely remorseful'' and ``realises how appalling his actions were''. He added: ``He knows that he is responsible for a most serious and grave period (of offending) but he is no threat now.''