Former choir school teacher abused boys

A FORMER teacher at a defunct North Yorkshire school has been jailed after he was found guilty of historic child sex abuse offences.

Children’s charity the NSPCC yesterday branded Ian Atkinson a ‘sick predator’.

The 59-year-old, formerly of Staveley, Ripon, had served as a deputy headteacher at the nowclosed Ripon Cathedral Choir School. He was jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of nine offences following a trial at Bradford Crown Court.

The offences included six charges of indecent assault on a boy, one charge of inciting a boy to commit an act of gross indecency with him and two of downloading indecent child images.

Four offences took place in Hampshire, where Atkinson also taught, and the remainder happened in Ripon.

Atkinson, now of Brompton on Regis, Somerset, was also put on the sex offender register for life and issued with a sexual harm prevention order.

A spokesman for the NSPCC said: “This was every parent’s worst nightmare; an awful betrayal of trust in which Atkinson used his position to abuse his young victims for his own twisted gratification.”

Detective Constable Fiona Ayre, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “I praise the victims for having the courage to relive their ordeals in court and I hope the outcome can help them to move forward.”