Teacher ‘lavished gif ts’ on pupils he abused

A SHAMED teacher branded ‘highly manipulative’ has been convicted of sexually abusing two pupils.

Ronald Burton, 60, groomed the boys by lavishing gifts on them – including underwear and gym memberships – while working at two secondary schools in South Lanarkshire.

A jury heard how the former assistant principal teacher who has now retired, targeted his young victims.

Burton, who taught maths, was finally caught in 2014 after being confronted by his first victim.

He claimed in court that he had shown ‘nothing but kindness and affection’ to the boys.

But he was found guilty following a week-long trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Burton was convicted of lewd and libidinous behaviour towards the first victim and a charge of sexual assault against the second boy.

He had bail continued pending sentencing in September and was ordered to surrender his passport meantime.

The jury heard had how the offences occurred 20 years apart. Burton got to know the first victim, then a first-year pupil, in around 1994. He later went on to tutor the boy with his maths studies.

Burton told the trial: ‘I made the judgment that I would try and help him improve.’ But the victim

‘He said that I thought just like his mother’

recalled feeling ‘very uncomfortable’ when the teacher used ‘crude terminology’.

The court heard that Burton drove the boy to a quiet lane before apparently becoming upset.

The witness said: ‘At this point he put his head in his hands. He said I thought just like his mother ...she always told him he was a pervert and I must think he is a pervert as well.’ The abuse ended when the boy was around 15. He told the court: ‘I ended up thinking I was the one in the wrong.’

After moving to another school, the court was told, Burton turned his attention to a second boy, aged around 12, in 2013. The victim told how he was touched inappropriately by the teacher. He said: ‘He asked and I said I was not comfortable with it. He would say “you are just like everyone else... you think I’m a weirdo”.’

The first victim, who finally reported Burton to police, said that before doing so he had felt ‘worthless’ and wanted to kill himself. But ‘a weight had been lifted’ after he confronted his abuser.

Burton, of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, denied the allegations.

Prosecutor Paul Kearney described the former teacher as ‘highly manipulative’ in carrying out ‘systematic sexual abuse’.

Other charges, including claims that Burton had raped the second victim and tried to hypnotise him, were dropped by prosecutors.