New BBC documentary reveals links between Scots paedophile teacher and notorious English abuser
A BBC Scotland investigation has discovered a close connection between music teacher Peter Antonelli, who was jailed for sexual offences against children in East Lothian, and violinist Christopher Ling who was at the centre of an abuse scandal in a renowned English music school.
A new programme investigated the case of paedophile Antonelli who was convicted and sentenced to eight years for the rape and sexual abuse of six children in East Lothian between 1980 and 2005.
The BBC documentary has interviewed two of the women whose evidence in court helped to convict the former music teacher and musical theatre director, who had groomed and abused children he was teaching.
Grace – not her real name – was one of Antonelli’s earliest victims. She was 10 when he started teaching her at primary school.
Antonelli abused Grace at a time when she was facing difficulties living at home. She told the programme that on the day of her grandmother’s funeral, when she was just 14, he took advantage of her and then abused her for the next five years. Another victim, Emma, told the programme she had been sexually abused by Antonelli from the late 1990s until 2005 and had kept the secret hidden for two decades.
She had been taught by Antonelli at school and was also in a musical theatre group he ran called Musical Youth. The BBC investigation discovered that Antonelli was good friends with Christopher Ling, a violinist who was accused of more than 70 cases of sexual abuse against his pupils in the 1980s and 1990s at specialist music school Chetham’s in Manchester.
Antonelli and Ling studied together at the Royal College of Music in London and are reported to have been flatmates. Ling visited Antonelli in East Lothian and was introduced to Grace.
She remembers Ling saying to Antonelli: “Look at these girls, they’re the rides of the future.” Grace added: “That’s what he said in front of us. ‘These are the rides of the future’.”
Grace recalled that she was about 15 at that time and a friend who was with her and also heard Ling’s comments was 13. Emma also says she spoke to Ling on the phone.
Pianist Dr Ian Pace is a leading campaigner against sexual abuse in musical education. In 2014, Dr Pace’s research laid bare the extent of historical abuse between students and teachers in specialist music schools.
He was asked by Disclosure if he thought it was significant that at least two of the victims had either met or spoken to Ling on the phone while in the company of Antonelli.
Dr Pace told the programme: ‘Yes, I think that’s very significant. And it would be of interest to compare their modus operandi. How exactly they used their techniques for manipulating, cajoling, and then abusing the pupils under their care.
“I mean, Ling appears to have had this, his sort of abuse down to a type of art form, as he would have seen it.”
Disclosure: Abused By My Teacher, Monday, April 11, BBC One Scotland, 10.35 pm