Music teacher who abused pupils at private school gets two years
A PAEDOPHILE music teacher is back behind bars for abusing two pupils at a private school.
Stephen Birch, 59, preyed on the young boys when he was alone with them at the school from when they were six and seven years old.
His first victim was touched inappropriately by Birch during private music lessons and when the teacher passed him in the corridor.
Creepy Birch targeted another pupil who was bullied and sat away from other children in a room on his own.
He told jurors: “I thought this was someone that actually cared about me.”
The teacher, already a convicted sex offender, denied the charges but was convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court of using lewd and libidinous practices between December 1997 and February 2001.
Passing sentence yesterday sheriff Martin Jones QC said: “You have been convicted by the jury of these two charges, both are serious.”
Birch blew a kiss to a woman in the public gallery as he was lead away to start his two year sentence.
He is already on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
The former teacher, from Maryhill, Glasgow was jailed for three years in 2012 at the High Court in Edinburgh after he admitted abusing a 13-year-old boy during a piano lesson at his house.
He pleaded guilty to carrying out the sexual assault in December 2011 and a charge of possessing indecent images of children.
Giving evidence in the latest trial, one man now 27 who was abused, recalled being taught piano by Birch and described him as “overbearing” as he sat on the same piano stool as him.
He told the court: “He would often have his had on my thigh as I was playing the piano.
“I was a lot smaller at that age as well, he looks very different today. He was quite overweight and had a big beard and just felt very dominating.
The man was asked how often it happened that Birch patted his thigh.He answered: “Any time I can recall a lesson, that would be the case that would happen.”
A second 27-year-old told how he often sat away in a room from other pupils in the school. He said Birch, who wasn’t his teacher, came in to see him on occasions to make sure he was OK and give him comfort.
He said: “He would give me hugs and things like that, when you’re a kid you just think someone is trying to reassure you.”
Birch denied the allegations and was asked if the men were lying. He said: “I’m saying that none of it is true.”
‘‘ I thought this was someone that actually cared about me