Cleared in just 26 minutes, teacher charged with rape
A JURY yesterday took just 26 minutes to clear a high-flying private school teacher of repeatedly raping a girl in his classroom.
Kato Harris, 37, wept as he was cleared of three counts of sexually assaulting the teenage pupil.
The then-head of geography at the £18,000-a-year all-girls secondary was accused of attacking the student three times in two months after inviting her into his classroom for ‘chats’ during lunch breaks.
During the trial at Isleworth Crown Court he insisted it was ‘completely impossible’ for him to have carried out the attacks, saying he would have been spotted by staff or pupils.
The teacher, who said he did not teach the girl and had exchanged no more than a ‘hello’ with her, said after the verdicts he hoped his case would not ‘deter people who have been victims of sexual assault from coming forward’.
Mr Harris, from Richmond, South-West London, added: ‘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.’
The Crown Prosecution Service is likely to face searching questions as to why it decided to press ahead with the trial.
The girl, who was 14 at the time, claimed that the attacks took place in the autumn term of 2013 – but only spoke out a year later.
Her family hired Sue Akers, a former deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, as a private investigator. Miss Akers held several meetings with serving officers about the case.
Detective Constable Sarah Lloyd, the officer leading the investigation, admitted in court that it was ‘unique’ for such a former high-ranking officer to be involved in this way. And the girl’s mother said she had spoken to Miss Akers up to a dozen times during the investigation.
The family also used the services of exclusive law firm Mishcon de Reya ahead of the case.
The rape allegations emerged after the girl moved to a new school. She initially refused to name her alleged abuser, only managing to say Mr Harris’s name after attending weekly therapy sessions in New York, it was said.
Mr Harris told the court he had dreamed of becoming a
‘Wonderful in every way’
headmaster and sobbed in the dock when a former colleague described him as ‘a wonderful teacher in every way’.
It also emerged that the girl had gone back to police and requested to do a second interview because she felt she would be able to provide a more detailed account.
William Clegg, defending, said the second interview may have come after the teenager had met with lawyers and Miss Akers had become involved. He suggested to the jury that they might have even thought her second interview had almost been ‘rehearsed’.
Last night, Miss Akers denied acting inappropriately in her work for the schoolgirl’s family by requesting meetings with officers from her old force.
‘I had a few meetings with officers,’ she said. ‘Not many. I didn’t request any materials. I was interested in seeing if they would disclose anything but they didn’t, which is fair enough.
‘I didn’t give any directions. I think that is the wrong word. I may have asked the officers if they had thought to do something or other and usually they said “Yes” or “No” and gave me a reason.’
She added: ‘The police don’t bring cases, the Crown Prosecution Service do. The police did their job, produced the papers to the CPS and the CPS chose to charge him. I was advising the family on the police investigation.
‘I don’t believe there was a conflict of interest here at all. I think it’s very wrong that I have become the story.
‘It’s not about me, it’s about a poor kid who has been brave enough to go to court and give evidence.’