ENGLAND
Kingsbridge and Salcombe Gazette
January 8, 2018
By Roger Williams
Villagers have spoken of their shock after a retired teacher was jailed for four years for indecently assaulting boys in his charge at a school in West Sussex.
Peter Burr, 73, of The Square, Kingswear, admitted nine counts of indecent assault between 1969 and 1973 on young boys at Christ’s Hospital School, a boarding school in Horsham, West Sussex.
Burr was well-known in the area. He could often be found at the Ship Inn in Kingswear or the Windjammer in Dartmouth.
Jan Henshall, chairman of Kingswear Parish Council, said: “I believe he was a member of Royal Dart Yacht Club. In the past, he attended the senior citizens lunch at Christmas in the village. He had a social life here and was well-known. From what I can gather from his friends, they are in total shock.”
Jason Byrne, of Kingswear Post Office, said: “He was a good customer and a very nice man. I’m surprised and shocked like everyone else. He’s done wrong and will now have to pay for it.
“He always kept himself to himself. If he was going away, he would not give any details. He would just say I’m going to see some friends, whereas as other people might say where they are going or have been.
“Every Saturday evening, he went to church.”
Burr attended St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Dartmouth.
Richard Rendle said: “I am disappointed because I thought he was a gentleman. I know he helped at the Regatta with classic craft and was a member of the Probus Club in Dartmouth.”
A physics teacher and deputy housemaster at the school, he was sentenced to four years in prison by judge Christine Henson QC, at Hove Crown Court on Friday, January 5, and was given concurrent sentences for each of the victims and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
DC Rebecca Wilde, of Sussex Police, said; “He clearly focused his sexual attentions on boys between and 11 and 13 in his house, leaving older boys alone.
“Some of the offences took place in his study during informal Wednesday and Sunday afternoon gatherings to watch TV, with tea, biscuits and cake on offer. To be invited was regarded as a great privilege and he took advantage of this, and his status, to systematically touch and molest three of the victims.
“The fourth victim was assaulted in the dormitory area and at the school swimming pool.
“The four boys kept these traumatic experiences largely to themselves for up to 48 years and moved on with their lives.
“We were first told about Burr in February last year, when one of the victims came forward, triggered by hearing a local radio debate in London on the recently publicised football sex abuse scandal, and believing that insufficient attention was given to cases in which offenders were not public celebrities.
“One of the others later came forward after the school advised ex-pupils of the ongoing investigation.
“This is an important reminder that such reports will always be taken seriously, however long ago they are said to have happened.”
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