ABSTRACT
The big picture of what happened is easy to outline. In my fifteenth year of teaching similar year groups, at the same junior school, and dealing with the pupils in essentially the same way that I had always done, I was informed of complaints from some parents about the way I had touched their children in class. While I certainly touched my pupils when appropriate, I could think of no event that seemed out of the ordinary and could not offer a specific response to the complaints (which were anyway fairly vague). Although most of the ‘incidents’ must have occurred when other adults were in the room, and all when the classroom was full of children, I was suspended. More than six months later I was charged with sexual assault, and was prevailed upon to
resign. More than a year after that, at the end of a five-week trial, I was found not guilty on some charges, but guilty on four others, with ‘no verdict’ on a string of others. Following a consideration of ‘reports’ the judge sentenced me to six months in prison. I served three months among ‘Category A’ sex offenders before my release, an interesting but sometimes terrifying experience that I would not recommend to the average white collar professional worker. Three weeks after leaving prison, at the Appeal Court, three senior judges ruled that my conviction had been unsafe and that I was thus not guilty. My brief inclusion on the register of child abusers came to an end. However, the ‘no verdict’ charges technically still stand, and this may hinder any attempt to remove my name from the famous ‘List 99’ of adults who must not be allowed to work with children and young people.
