Guilty, Eton master who fondled boys in the dark
A teAcher at eton was facing jail last night for sexually abusing four boys.
Matthew Mowbray groped pupils at the £42,000-a-year boarding school, whose alumni include 20 prime ministers and Princes William and harry.
A jury was told the 49-year-old exploited his ‘almost unfettered access to boys’ by visiting their bedrooms up to 180 times.
he spied through their keyholes and filmed them getting changed.
Mowbray, who worked at eton for 25 years, admitted downloading hundreds of indecent images of children as well as superimposing pupils’ faces on to the naked bodies of other, unknown youngsters on his computer.
But he denied nine counts of sexual activity with children – four boys and one girl – over a period of ten years. Yesterday a jury of six men and six women found him guilty on eight of the charges and not guilty in relation to the girl.
Presiding judge heather Norton Qc told him that prison was inevitable, adding: ‘You should prepare yourself for that.’
Mowbray remained expressionless as the verdicts were read out. he left reading crown court with his elderly parents, both doctors.
the six- day trial heard that 6ft 4in Mowbray, who was born in South Africa, was investigated after a boy reported he had ‘put his head on my arm, basically laid down on me without putting his legs up’.
John Price Qc, prosecuting, said Mowbray sent an email to the deputy headmaster in a desperate bid to protect his reputation. the geography master wrote: ‘ A big part of the awful feeling I have about this situation is that regardless of whether it is true or not, it could be impossible to stop the rumours. It leaves me with the feeling that I can never go back to normal unless this is managed very carefully.’
Mr Price asked: ‘ Did he know exactly what did happen, that it would all unravel, that on the hearing of what had happened to the first boy, other boys would come forward and say the same thing had happened to them?
‘When he spoke of things being managed carefully so things could go back to normal, did he mean prevent it getting out and minimising the risk of others coming forward?’
Detectives discovered thousands of indecent images on Mowbray’s hard drive, 17 of which were of two of the schoolboys in the case. Around 240 of them were category A – the most horrific and serious level of abuse. the jury was told Mowbray wielded power over the boys and they felt so helpless his abuse went unchecked f or several years.
Via video link, one victim told the court of his ordeal: ‘I saw Mr Mowbray looking through the keyhole of a room, I remember it vividly.’
recalling his first ‘lights out’ visit, the boy, who had just started at eton, said: ‘I was sitting on my left side when he used his palm to stroke between my knee and groin,
up and down my leg. This happened six or seven times during my time at eton.’
Things got so bad, the boy would stuff tissue paper in his keyhole yet realised that Mowbray had an extensive influence. He said: ‘He writes the principal advisory letter talking about one’s academic and social character and why they should be accepted to the university they are applying to.’
Another victim told the court Mowbray visited his bedroom up to 180 times.
He said: ‘He would come in and initially sit in my chair and then after a while he would sit on my bed. He would sit around my knees and stroke my leg. It was uncomfortable but it was something I was used to.
‘It would not be uncommon for him to rest a hand on my knees or thigh, occasionally he would rest a hand on my hip over the bed covers.’
He recalled arriving back from home to find a recording device hidden in his room.
‘I thought somebody had been spying on me for some reason,’ he said.
‘I gave it to Mr Mowbray but at the back of my mind I thought it could have been him who put it there to check I was keeping to the rules, I thought he was trying to catch me out. I thought it was really weird the way he handled it. He told me not to tell anyone.’
Detective Constable Kathryn Webb, of the child abuse investigation unit at Windsor in Berkshire, thanked the victims. She said: ‘The victims and witnesses, many of whom are children, had the courage to come forward and provide evidence on very personal matters and in challenging circumstances.’
Mowbray had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images of children and one count of voyeurism in relation to a series of covertly filmed images showing a boy getting dressed.
He will be sentenced at the crown court on a date yet to be set.
Mowbray was granted bail on condition that he does not contact parents or staff, does not enter eton or the surrounding area, and does not have unsupervised contact with children under 16.
Marc Thompson of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘Mowbray’s victims described feeling uncomfortable with his nocturnal visits. While not overtly sexual acts, they knew the touching was wrong, but were at a loss to know what to do.’
eton head Simon Henderson last night said it was ‘a difficult truth’ that the school trusted Mowbray for so long and did not identify his abuse earlier. He was dismissed from the 580-year- old school following his arrest in May last year.
‘Nocturnal vists to their rooms’