Sex pest drumming instructor is jailed for assaulting pupils
A DRUMMING instructor at a Scottish boarding school has been jailed for assaulting teenage girls with his drumsticks.
James Clark was sentenced to one year and nine months after previously being found guilty of assaults at the ‘traditional’ Perthshire school.
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, the father of six was convicted of three charges of common assault by hitting or touching his victims’ bottoms, two of them using drumsticks.
He was also found guilty of three charges of breach of trust by sexual activity with or directed at girl pupils and one charge of communicating indecently with a pupil.
Seven girls, aged 13 to 18, were victims between 2011 and 2018. A seven-day trial in September was told Clark, 56, had a ‘habit’ of touching girls’ bottoms.
One pupil, now 23, said she felt ‘violated’ after being regularly struck on the bottom by the former pipes and drums instructor for the British Army, often during kilt-fitting sessions in the school’s clothing store.
She said during a band trip to Switzerland in 2015, when she was in S6, Clark had smacked her ‘pretty much all the time’.
Other pupils said when they challenged him about hitting their bottoms with his hands, drumsticks or a rolled up copy of the register, Clark, known as ‘Drummie’, would tell them: ‘I’m your school dad.’
One ex-pupil said when she was 16, Clark had cornered her at a Christmas concert at the school and said: ‘The two of us should have children together.’
He was also said to have hugged pupils, and entered one senior girl’s room when she was asleep, sat on her bed and kissed her on the forehead. Jurors heard Clark engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2018, including performing a sex act in the bagpipe store
The victim, now 20, said Clark had ‘abused’ her in his car, the band hut and several rooms in her boarding house.
Clark, of Merchiston, Edinburgh, had denied the charges.
His counsel, Sarah Livingstone, said he had ‘an illicit affair’ with the girl.
Sentencing Clark, Sheriff Alistair Brown said: ‘Sexual activity by a man in relation to a girl under 18 in relation to whom he is in a position of trust is... always a crime.’
Clark, now a gardener, was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
Following sentencing, assistant procurator fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife Malcolm McBain praised victims’ bravery during the prosecutions.
‘I’m your school dad’