Latest Offenders Berkshire

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A public school rowing coach who posed as a 16-year-old girl to sexually manipulate 32 teenage boys was jailed for six years today.

Andrew Cook, 30, was convicted of 37 sexual offences involving dozens of boys aged between 13 and 17 at south west London's £20,000-per-year Hampton School.

Cook, of Newbury, Berkshire, tricked the boys into getting naked on camera making 'pic for pic' requests while posing as a 16-year-old girl, under the name Anne Jones.

The teacher targeted a string of adolescent boys over the course of nine years.

Victims recalled feeling 'embarrassed', 'awful' and 'physically sick' when they discovered Anne Jones was in fact their rowing coach, who they trusted and regarded as a friend.

Cook was sentenced at Guilford Crown Court today where he came face to face with one of his victims, while others attended virtually. 

The ex-rowing coach was also banned from working with children and will be placed on the sexual offenders register.

Judge Alexia Durran said: 'You were in a position of trust to many of the teenage victims.

'They said you were someone they trusted, someone who helped them when they were bullied, someone who had betrayed their trust. Some feel it has impacted their academic studies.' 

Surrey Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team launched their probe in April 2018 after being alerted by the school and found Cook had been offending since June 2011. 

During his nine-year period of abuse, Cook invited victims to a game of truth and dare online and asked them to trade 'pic for pic'.

On one occasion, he pretended to be his female cousin while talking to a boy online who he sent photos of a topless female and asked for nude pictures in return. 

The ex rowing coach pleaded guilty to 37 counts of grooming the boys to pose naked for him and to possessing 53 indecent images of children.

He denied charges related to three further boys which were not tried and will remain on file. 

The rowing coach was sacked from the 450-year-old independent school two years ago after an internal disciplinary inquiry prompted by student complaints. 

Hampton School expressed its 'deep regret' after the shamed former rowing coach was jailed.

A spokesperson said: 'We have been deeply saddened by this matter, which runs completely counter to the values of our School.

'The welfare of our pupils is always our highest priority. As soon as we became aware of concerns in spring term 2018, we immediately informed all relevant authorities.

'Mr Cook was suspended from the School and subsequently dismissed with immediate effect following an internal disciplinary investigation.

'Since then we have worked closely with Surrey Police and partner agencies to assist with their ongoing inquiries and provide all possible support, both to them and to the victims.

'We are grateful to all those who have helped bring this matter to justice, not least of course those whose courage in coming forward provided invaluable assistance to the investigation.

'We express our deep regret to those affected and offer our continued support.'

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Request: Current age and location

SOBBING and humiliated, I watched as my GP scanned my body and told me: Well, you look healthy to me."

I'd just spent the last ten minutes pouring my heart out, explaining how I'd been trapped in a hellish cycle of starving myself then binging and purging on repeat - all in the wake of sickening sex abuse.

I was 16 years old and it had taken me months to pluck up the courage to seek help after spiralling into the depths of an eating disorder after my favourite teacher groped me in my classroom and tried to make me follow him into the stationary cupboard.

Despite me reporting it to the school, they'd taken his side and the other kids had caught wind of it and began calling me names in the corridors.

But my doctor told me I didn't tick the 'physical box criteria' - my BMI was normal, I wasn't skeletal and my periods hadn't stopped.

Humiliated, I left the surgery and an already toxic pattern of thinking and behaving became even darker.

Across the UK, around 1.6 million people are battling eating disorders, with anorexia having the highest mortality rate of all mental health disorders - and studies show those suffering with eating disorders are likely to be victims of sexual trauma.

'My world collapsed when I turned 12'

I was always one of those children described as good eaters - I was never fussy throughout my childhood and was never over or underweight.

I was a happy child - up until the age of 12 when my whole world collapsed after a teacher at my school sexually abused me.

One day in year eight, I needed split pins so my teacher told me to go to a classroom down the hall to fetch them.

I entered the empty room to find one of my favourite teachers sat behind his desk.

Shay Pather, also known as Shayen, was the 'cool', young teacher at Kings Langley School- at just 27 years old, he was popular with the students.

He always called me his A-star student and made a huge fuss over me - but despite enjoying his classes, I never had a 'teen crush' on him - to me he was just my teacher, an adult.

After seeing me walk into the classroom, he rolled his chair away from his desk and beckoned me over, pretending to be interested in my work.

As I stood in front of him, showing him my model, he suddenly reached out and yanked my tie - knotting it.

This was a game the kids played at school - we called it 'peanutting' - the aim was to leave the person with the tightest knot.

Confused by his strange behaviour, I let out a nervous laugh but as I turned away to sort my tie, he grasped my upper arms pulled me down onto his lap.

Still in his grip, he pushed my hair to the side and pushed his lips hard onto the back of my neck.

Paralysed with fear, my eyes fixed on the closed classroom door, I froze as he molested me.

I couldn't understand why someone I had trusted, whose job was to keep me safe, was doing this.

Confused, panicked and in a state of shock, I scrambled from his grip and bolted for the door.

He edged around the desks, grabbing at my waist and trying to block my escape.

As I frantically tried to get out of the classroom, he ordered me to go into the walk-in cupboard, where I would be able to find the split pins - but my gut told me not to.

I pushed past him and ran down the hall with tears streaming down my face and my shirt untucked.

He ordered me to go into the walk-in cupboard

Hana Carter

I ran as fast as I could to my head of year's office, and as I looked out the window I saw him scrambling up the stairs after me.

Branded a 'slut'

I told the head of year what had happened, then I went home - confused, violated and exhausted from crying.

Mum took me back to the school that evening for an emergency meeting with my headteacher.

As I sat in front of the headteacher it became immediately apparent that he didn't believe me.

The head asked my mum why I wasn't 'more upset', to which she replied: "I've just spent the last hour calming her down so that she can be here to talk to you."

Pather was arrested, and the days that followed were a blur of police interviews, sleepless nights and inconsolable counselling sessions.

During the investigation he was suspended from school and his absence and whispers of the assault spread like wildfire through the hallways.

But to my horror, as no one saw the incident and it was his word against mine - the police decided to let him go. Suddenly, my abuser was free to roam my school and return to teaching.

He stayed at the school until I left in year 11 and was banned from teaching me or speaking to me.

But as I walked to my tech lessons, he would often smirk at me or try to start a conversation, making little jokes as I blanked him.

I was branded a liar, an attention seeker and worst of all a sl*t by the other kids.

As every school year ended, I would be relieved that one wave of kids who knew my name and my story was leaving to be replaced by a fresh slate of more.

I considered moving school but I didn't want to leave my friends and be the new girl elsewhere, so I stood my ground.

But my private pain only worsened as time went on.

'I'd binge on junk then make myself sick'

I felt like I'd lost myself - and we hit the early 2000s super-skinny became the new thing and Kate Moss was queen.

I wanted to be like the happy women in the magazines, I thought that would make me feel confident again.

My self-esteem had been shot to pieces and I'd convinced myself I was fat, despite only being a size 8.

I began skipping meals and within a few months, I was completely controlled by obsessive thoughts around food and weight.

I would starve myself for weeks on end before giving in to hunger and devouring everything in sight.

During these frantic binges, I'd go to the shops and buy bags of crisps, packs of biscuits, ready-made sandwiches, pastries, sweets, chocolate - you name it.

In the privacy of my bedroom, I'd eat it all in one sitting and wouldn't stop until I felt physically sick.

Then I'd sneak to the bathroom, shove my fingers down my throat and make myself throw up until there was nothing left.

This went on for months, and my parents soon realised there was something wrong when I made constant excuses to avoid mealtimes.

The happy young girl I once was became withdrawn, angry and secretive and they couldn't understand why.

All I thought about was food, the ways to avoid it and how many calories everything had in it. If anything got in the way of my strict plan, I became incredibly anxious and even aggressive.

I'd sneak to the bathroom, shove my fingers down my throat and make myself throw up

Hana Carter

I came up with ways to hide or get rid of food without my parents realising... I would do anything I could to avoid eating.

I single-handedly ruined one Christmas eve with my family by refusing to eat pizza. Id used every excuse in the book not to eat dinner with them that evening, but dad wasnt having any of it.

He finally lost his patience when he caught me taking the cheese off my slices and hiding it in a piece of kitchen roll.

I couldnt tell him that my heart was pounding and I wanted to burst into tears just looking at the food on my plate.

I used to look in the mirror and just hold onto the 'fat' and squeeze myself so hard it would hurt - and I would only allow myself to eat the equivalent of a six-year-old's allowance.

'I was too scared to ask for help'

This hell went on for most of my teenage years and even spilled into my twenties.

I would try to pull myself out of it and eat normally, but then Id spiral back into my old ways, becoming extremely anxious by food and eating - it was a constant cycle.

But I never asked for help, the experience with the GP when I was 16 made me feel that I didn't deserve it.

I was physically harming myself by starving myself and was exercising control over food as a way to cope with trauma. But because I wasnt critically underweight I was pushed to the side, left to get worse.

Eating disorders are more than someones size. They are a mental illness and should be treated as such. Catching it early could save lives - rather than turning people away because their BMI isnt deemed low enough.

'He's abused another underage girl'

At 26, I would be lying if I said I had a completely normal relationship with food and that I loved my body, but Im working on it.

In 2014, nearly a decade after I was violated by Pather, my biggest fear came true - he had done it again.

It was as if someone had picked me up and planted me straight back in that classroom in 2006 - I felt sick to my stomach.

Furious that history had been allowed to repeat itself, I wrote a letter to the school.

I told them how had they have taken me seriously and treated me with the respect and care I deserved, the monster that ruined my school years wouldn't have been able to destroy another girls' life.

To my surprise, I got a call from the police several days later to tell me that the school had forwarded my letter to them and asked me to provide a statement to help with the case.

On October 20, 2014, Shayen Pather pleaded guilty at St Albans Crown Court to the charge of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

He was sentenced to just nine months and was put on the sex offenders' register for 10 years - which will be up in four years.

But despite never getting my own personal justice and it not being the longest jail sentence, when I heard the news that he had been put behind bars, I broke down in tears.

After what happened to me, as I watched him arrogantly swan around the school, my biggest fear was that he would ruin more young girl's lives.

The news that he would never set foot in a classroom again gave me a rush of relief - a sensation I'd been yearning after for nine years.

After it got out that he had been jailed, the rumour mill sprung to life, but this time I was on the receiving end of kind messages from people Id gone to school with, apologising for not believing me.

There are times where I wonder how different my teenage years would have been had that day in 2005 not happened - and maybe how different I'd be as a person now.

But I refuse to live in the past and obsess over the 'what ifs'.

What happened to me and the knock on effect was traumatic, but I'm so proud of my 12-year-old self and the strength that she mustered - it's something I still carry with me today.

Description

Robert Neill, 63 of Park Lane, Thatcham, carried out a series of sexual assaults at Kennet School where he worked between 1986 and 2003.

A school PE teacher who chose vulnerable boys who took his fancy to prey on and sexually abuse has been jailed for 21 years for raping a pupil.

Robert Neills wife blew him a kiss across the courtroom as the 63-year-old was led down to the cells on Wednesday, March 9, after a judge described how he had left an indelible mark on his victims, some as young as 11.

The paedophile, of Park Lane, Thatcham and who was a housemaster at the school, was sent to prison for more than two decades for sexually assaulting boy pupils where he worked for 17 years.

He worked at Kennet School in Thatcham, when he carried out the severe sexual acts, which included a rape.

Sitting at Reading Crown Court Judge Angela Morris described the 63-year-old as a man who preyed on the youngest and most vulnerable pupils at his school to carry out his abuse which left an indelible mark upon them.

The teacher would single out the youngest boys in their academic years and also naughty pupils before demanding that they paid him a visit in his office.

Acting as the head of St Michaels House at the Berkshire school, he would inflict his abuse during the office visits within the grounds of the school.

Description

A paedophile who lured three young girls into his bedroom and sexually abused them has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Michael Griffin, 42, (pictured right) was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty of six counts of sexual assault on a child under 13 and two counts of possessing indecent images of children.

Outside the court a relative of one of the girls, who cannot be named, spoke of her relief.

She told the Evening Post: “No sentence will ever be long enough, but I feel relieved justice has finally been done for these children.

“He (Griffin) has been locked up and won’t be able to harm other children and put them through the suffering our family has been through.

Speaking about how the girls had been coping, she added: “They get very sad and tearful. I am worried about the long term effects but hopefully we can all get our lives back together.

“What he did to these children was horrendous. The devil comes in many disguises. I thought he was a nice person but got it all so badly wrong.”

The court had heard Griffin befriended the girls in Spencers Wood in the autumn of 2004 when they were aged between three and nine.

During the year he abused them as they watched television and played on a computer in his bedroom.

In one sinister game he would wrap them up in his duvet and reach up and touch them sexually.

The computer was later seized by police and found to contain more than 200 indecent images and video clips of children including penetrative sex between an adult and child.

Griffin told the court he had worked voluntarily as an administrator for an adult chatroom and became intrigued by child pornography following the Gary Glitter case.

Passing sentence, Judge Stanley Spence described Griffin as “a dangerous paedophile” who carried out a “despicable act” and was a serious risk to the public.

He said: “You forced all these girls to come into court and give evidence and subject them to being called liars reducing them to tears.”

Referring to the child pornography found on Griffin’s computer, he added: “I completely reject your ridiculous suggestion of research – you did it because you have an unhealthy interest in young girls.”

Griffin, of Pear Tree Lane, Newbury, was ordered never to be alone with a child under 16, including relatives, without parental presence.

He was also told never to contact the abused girls, and was barred from residing in or visiting Spencers Wood until his victims reached 16 years of age.

Griffin was further banned from any communication with a child including through the internet and working with children. He was placed on the sexual offenders’ register indefinitely.

After his sentence DC Jayne Payne, child protection officer at Thames Valley Police, said: “This sentence really reflects justice for these three delightful little girls. They came forward and gave evidence in court, which in itself is traumatic, but told the truth and the jury made the correct verdict.”