THE GROPER OF GORDONSTOUN
Ex-master at royal’s old school found guilty of molesting three 13-year-olds
A FORMER assistant housemaster at Gordonstoun – the boarding school favoured by royals and celebrities – was yesterday found guilty of sex crimes against pupils.
Disgraced Andrew Keir, 67, was convicted of lewd and indecent behaviour towards three 13-year-old boys at the Moray school three decades ago.
A sheriff took just 20 minutes to find the retired physics teacher guilty after a three-day trial at Elgin Sheriff Court.
Keir, now living in Cheshire, denied swimming and showering while naked and in a state of arousal with the boys, and encouraging them to do the same.
He also denied removing his trunks in front of them and “skinny dipping”, saying he could have taken them into the pool alone but had not done so.
He added: “If I had had an evil mind I might have managed it but I didn’t. It would have been possible, but I didn’t.”
Keir further denied putting his hands down a pupil’s trousers and performing a sex act as he played computer games but was found guilty of all the charges.
His three victims, now in their 40s, told of secret swimming sessions in the dark during which a naked Keir chased them.
They said they told the school chaplain at the time but nothing was done.
Keir, who has Asperger’s, said he was a housemaster, teacher, judo and sailing coach and fire engine driver at Gordonstoun and too busy to molest anyone.
A spokeswoman for the school – which has Princes Philip, Charles, Andrew and Edward as well as David Bowie’s son Zowie as former pupils – said: “The response at the time of the offences was not as robust and rigorous as it would be now, and we are very sorry for this.”
Prosecutor Alison Young said Keir was guilty of “basically grooming” pupils by getting them alone outside class between November 1988 and March 1989.
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov will sentence Keir next month.