UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette & Herald
Nadia Jefferson-Brown, Deputy news editor
PAST pupils at one of Britain’s leading Catholic schools have spoken of their dismay over the way a trial involving a former teacher charged with sexual abuse was handled.
An investigation by The Times newspaper raised questions about the inquiry and subsequent trial last year, involving Paul Sheppard, now 53, a Canadian who taught at Ampleforth College.
He was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of serious sexual offences in 1989 against another pupil, who later committed suicide.
He was due to stand trial last year, accused of seven charges of indecent assault against five former pupils, but the charges involving all but one of the boys were dropped following rulings by the judge.
Judge Colin Burn ruled that the alleged incidences, including when the teacher was said to have stroked and kissed a boy as he slept, did not amount to “circumstances of indecency”.
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