Ex-eton teacher investigated

A FORMER master at Eton College, who taught when David Cameron was there, is the subject of a police investigation into historic child abuse.

Raef Payne, who was a housemaster during a 35-year career at the school in Berkshire, was accused of attending parties where men swapped photos of naked children.

The college itself reported the allegations to Thames Valley Police after they were published in a book by Alex Renton, an Old Etonian who has investigated child abuse at boarding schools.

Payne, who died in 2001, worked at the school from 1952 until 1987, and was credited by Dominic West with inspiring him to take up acting as a career after casting him as Hamlet in a school play.

Mr Renton, who was abused as a boy at Ashdown House school in East Sussex, will disclose the extent of child abuse at boarding schools in an ITV documentary tonight.

An Eton spokesman said: “We became aware of an allegation relating to a former staff member and contacted police. We take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously.”