Police drop inquiry into Dulwich College sexual abuse claims
A POLICE inquiry into claims of sexual assault at one of Britain’s leading public schools has been dropped due to a lack of evidence, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
More than 100 allegations of revenge porn, sexual assault and abusive behaviour were levelled against pupils of Dulwich College in south-east London just over a year ago.
The all-boys school, which charges £45,234 a year for boarders, reported two allegations of sexual assault to police as reports surged nationwide of sex abuse by pupils at some of the country’s top private schools.
More than 11,000 anonymous testimonies of abuse at schools across the UK, state and private – largely of girls by boys – were posted on the Everyone’s Invited website in less than a month. It now has 50,000.
Former Norfolk chief constable Simon Bailey, at the time the country’s senior officer in charge of child sexual abuse in institutions, described the claims as ‘the tip of the iceberg’ and the ‘MeToo movement for schools’.
But the Metropolitan Police has quietly dropped its investigation into allegations against Dulwich College pupils following an ‘assessment of the evidence available’.
Dulwich master Dr Joseph Spence wrote to parents a year ago to inform them that a number of pupils had been disciplined for minor cases of abuse and others were referred to the police.
The college – which is near an allgirls school, and counts Nigel Farage, Ernest Shackleton and PG Wodehouse among its alumni – became a lightning rod for public anger after thousands of young women posted online their experiences of alleged abuse. In response, the Department for Education funded a helpline, managed by the NSPCC. By the start of this year it had received 979 reports nationally, of which 95 were passed to police.
Operation Hydrant, set up to coordinate the police’s response to claims of sexual abuse by school pupils, last night said it could not provide the number of charges, if any, brought as a result of the reports. It also issued a bizarre warning to forces that there was a risk of victims being identified if anonymised data was provided to this newspaper. Despite that, four forces disclosed that of a total of 11 referrals, none have resulted in charges although several allegations are still under investigation.
Last year, education regulator Ofsted was ordered by ministers to conduct an emergency review. After inspectors visited 32 schools and colleges and spoke to 900 children, it said a culture change was needed to tackle the ‘normalised’ behaviour of sexual harassment in education. A Met Police spokeswoman said of the Dulwich allegations: ‘Police received two separate allegations of non-recent sexual assault on 25 March 2021. Following an assessment of the evidence available, no further action was taken.’
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Child Abuse and Investigation, said: ‘Our Operation Hydrant team works hard to support those who have come forward. If victims do wish to report criminal offences to the police, they can be confident their account will be recorded.’
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Young people should always report abuse.’ Dulwich College was contacted for comment.
‘If victims do report offences, their account will be recorded’