Former teacher at top school jailed for abusing boy pupils
A FORMER teacher at a top private school was jailed for four years yesterday for sexually abusing pupils.
Peter Burr, 73, admitted nine counts of indecently assaulting four boys aged between 11 and 14 at Christ’s Hospital, in Horsham, West Sussex, between 1969 and 1973.
The retired house master and physics teacher, of Dartmouth, Devon, had admitted luring pupils to his study for tea and chocolate biscuits before fondling them, Hove Crown Court was told.
But it emerged that Burr was only caught after one of his victims contacted Express columnist Vanessa Feltz’s radio show.
The former pupil said he tried to report the crimes to officers at Horsham police station in 2000 but felt he was “batted back” and no further action was taken. It was not until December 2016 that he was prompted to email the producer of Vanessa’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.
Judge Christine Henson said Burr 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 were poor.
In an impact statement, one of the victims, who was sent to the £31,500-a-year boarding school free of charge after his father died and his family was on a low income, 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.”
Burr is the second former teacher from the school to be jailed in as many months in separate prosecutions.
Peter Webb, 74, was jailed for four years in December. Three more men are due to stand trial this year.
Ajaz Karim, 63, of London, denies nine charges of indecent assault against six girl pupils.
James Husband, 67, of York, denies four counts of rape and five counts of indecently assaulting a woman.
Gary Dobbie, 66, of Albi, France, denies seven counts of indecent assault against two men, as well as three counts of indecently assaulting two women.