PREYING ON HIS PRODIGIES

This brilliant violinist was cleared yesterday of raping one of his pupils at a top music school. But why was he allowed to brazenly seduce at least SIX other girls in his charge?

WITH his mop of ginger hair and thick-rimmed spectacles, music teacher Malcolm Layfield hardly cut the figure of a stereotypical Lothario. But when it came to satisfying his lust for young, impressionable girls, it was his power, not his appearance, that mattered.

While in his 30s, Layfield slept with half-a-dozen or so of his pupils, the youngest of them 17. Alcohol would generally be first consumed, after which sex would follow — often in the distinctly unromantic setting of the back seat of his car.

The fact that Layfield was married didn’t stop him. If anything, it seemed to add an extra frisson to his philandering.

On one occasion, it was claimed that he had sex with a teenager while his wife and two young children were elsewhere in the house, though Layfield denies this.

Nor was the music master put off by the fact the girls he slept with happened to be his pupils.

A violin teacher at Manchester’s world-famous Chetham’s School of Music, time and again he abused his position for his own sexual gratification.

Details of Layfield’s predatory behaviour — which he admitted was ‘shameful’ — were outlined last week during a trial at Manchester Crown Court. Now 63, he was accused of raping one of those teenage pupils in the early Eighties. She alleged that having plied her with alcohol, he pounced on her in the back of his car.

Layfield claimed the sex was consensual and yesterday the jury agreed, finding him not guilty.

But this is far from the end of it. Not only is the alleged victim planning to sue Chetham’s for failing to safeguard its young pupils, but the trial has brought to light yet more evidence of the shocking goings-on at the school, which is charged with nurturing Britain’s most brilliant musical minds.

The case also raises more questions as to why the authorities took so long to investigate the allegations, despite many opportunities.

What the jury was not told about were the links between the Layfield case and that of Michael Brewer, another former Chetham’s teacher. Brewer was jailed for six years in 2013 after being convicted of indecently assaulting Frances Andrade, also a pupil, when she was 14 and 15.

During Brewer’s trial, following a