Teacher’s tears after he is cleared of raping girl
A HIGHLY respected teacher wept yesterday as he was cleared of repeatedly raping a schoolgirl in his classroom.
Kato Harris burst into tears after the jury took just 26 minutes to find him not guilty of attacking the teenager in one of Britain’s top private schools.
The girl accused Mr Harris, 37, of luring her into his classroom at lunchtime and raping her three times in the autumn of 2013.
Terrified
But he told the jury he would never do anything so “unspeakable”. It would be impossible to carry out such an attack without being detected, he said.
Almost all the classroom could be seen from the corridor or an adjacent AstroTurf sports area. A tiny “blind spot” in the corner of the room was occupied by a table and computer terminal, London’s Isleworth Crown Court heard.
Mr Harris, of Richmond, southwest London, denied rape and suggested the girl may have made up the allegations because he once accused her of making a “silly” face in a school photo.
Speaking outside court, he said: “There is a beautiful world out there and for 20 months I’ve been terrified of it, and I’ve been hiding from it. I’m now going into it a good man and a free man.”
He added: “I am grateful for the verdict of the jury today.
“The last 20 months have put massive stress on my family.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their love and care.
“I am grateful for the hundreds of letters from former colleagues, friends, past pupils who sent messages of support. I’ll reply to all.
He added: “It is my sincere wish that this extraordinary case does not deter people who have been victims of sexual abuse coming forward in the future.”
Mr Harris was working as the head of the geography department at the London school.
The allegations emerged after the girl moved to a new school where staff became concerned about her unhappiness, eating habits and panic attacks.
She told the jury she suffered panic attacks every day and flew to New York each Tuesday for a year to consult a leading psychiatrist. Interviewed by police, Mr Harris said he could think of no reason why the girl would lie. “I do feel kind of sorry for her,” he told police. “I don’t know what’s going on in her head. It’s a lie.”
Colleagues queued up to praise Mr Harris. A former head teacher told the jury he was an “outstanding teacher, bordering on brilliant”. She added: ‘He did his job extremely well. He was a passionate geographer. Every day he had a packed classroom.
“Pupils adored his lessons. He was a problem-solving member of staff. If I were still a head teacher, I’d employ him in a heartbeat.”
Condemn
Mr Harris’s acquittal is bound to fuel calls for an urgent review of the law identifying people charged with sex offences. Many lawyers condemn a system which grants life-long anonymity to an accuser but names the defendant. They argue there should be a “level playing field” with a law granting life-long anonymity to the accused until found guilty.
The teacher’s name joins a long list of men, including Sir Cliff Richard, Lord Bramall and DJ Paul Gambaccini, who have been cleared after being at the centre of high-profile sex cases.