Teenage babysitter on crutches ‘groped by top girls’ school head’
THE former head of a lead- ing girls’ school groped his babysitter while she was on crutches, a court heard yesterday.
Alistair Perry, 46, allegedly put the girl on his lap and started molesting her after she came to his home to look after his children.
The then 16-year-old told police she was unable to escape because of her crutches and was saved only by his wife coming home. Perry, who was executive principal at the outstanding-rated Colston Girls’ School in Bristol, is accused of two sex attacks. The allegations, which date back ten years, came to light after the girl told her cousin about the incidents on a camping trip with her church group.
The cousin told the girl’s parents, who in turn told police, Cardiff Crown Court heard. Describing the first allegation, the girl told police: ‘He took me to his bedroom and he was helping me with my work.
‘All of a sudden he stood up behind me and started massaging my shoulders and put his hand down my top and under my bra and started touching, massaging. That went on for about ten minutes and he tried to kiss me.
‘He said he was sorry he shouldn’t have done that. I thought that was it. But he kept going back to my parents to offer to help.’
She told officers that Perry, a regular churchgoer, touched her on a second occasion when she had again agreed to babysit believing he was out. In an interview played to court, she said: ‘I thought he wouldn’t be there.
‘When I got there, his wife said to me that he wasn’t coming and he was marking all his school work so he would follow her half hour later.
‘I sat downstairs, panicking the whole time, what he would do. He came downstairs and said he was going to keep me company. He rang his wife and said there was no point going. I was sat on the sofa and he came over and picked me up and put me on his lap and started doing different things to me. I was on crutches and couldn’t leave.
‘He put me on his lap and his hands were going everywhere under the dress, everywhere. That went on for quite a while then his wife came home.’
Perry, of Colaton Raleigh near Sidmouth in Devon, denies two counts of indecent assault. The trial continues.