Due to the nature of this post I’m making the rare decision to issue a CONTENT WARNING. This post deals with child sexual abuse. The main aim of this post is to make sure there is a public record of what happened at the school, as to date the only record of events is a single post on a blog that covered the results of a claim for damages against the school by one of the victims. While it won’t go into the most graphic details of what happened, I wasn’t one of the victims of the worst offenders, it will go into some detail. And it will explain how one of the worst people on the planet got away with what he did without any repercussions. This is the second version of this document and includes more detail on what happened from research done.
From 1973 to 1994 Dame Esther Rantzen presented the show That’s Life! on BBC1. It was mostly a satirical current affairs show, but also did pieces on consumer protection and general interest. Most people remember it as the show that had the dog that said “sausages” and a regular feature on rude vegetables on it. The topics covered by the show would inspire Esther Rantzen to start the charity Childline. It was a letter to Childline that was passed to Esther Rantzen that would start an investigation of child sex cases at Crookham Court School in Newbury. In May 1989 a group of MPs raised the issue with the government demanding action. At the same time a teacher in the West Midlands died, a diary was recovered detailing what was described by police as the largest paedophile ring in the country. To the best of my knowledge the name of this teacher, and the schools he taught at, were never mentioned. What is known though is that the inquiry into Crookham Court took on new urgency. In August 1989 the owner of Crookham Court, Philip Cadman, was arrested. Alongside him two other teachers, Bill Printer and Anthony Edmonds, would also be tried and convicted of sexual abuse of the children at the school. More arrests would come over the following decades, Mark Standish would be convicted in March 2012, Keith Cavendish-Coulson in 2014, and Roy Cotton, the school’s co-founder would also be convicted of historical abuse from the 1960s. The case would be reconstructed for That’s Life! and aired as the documentary The Scandal of Crookham Court on Jan 13th 1991. Crucially one of the teachers kept a diary of the abuse he was committing, Anthony Edmonds, which would implicate another school in the scandal. This school would mostly escape the attention that Crookham Court received, primarily by threatening its pupils with expulsion if they talked to anyone. This would not be the only school to cover up the abuse though, as it 1 emerged that schools throughout the country would campaign to have children’s witness statements removed from a 1991 Department of Education report into sexual abuse at Private Schools in order to protect the school’s reputations. It is also to the utter shame of the government at the time that they tried to block the investigation calling it “a waste of money”.
Shortly after the arrests of the teachers at Crookham Court the police acted on the evidence found in Anthony Edmonds diary. On the 21st September 1989 it was reported 2 that 3 teachers connected with Trent College had been accused of sexual offences at the school. One of them resigned there and then and another was suspended subject to their inquiries. The other had resigned a year earlier. Peter O’Gorman and Michael Ling would later be named as cases against them were brought in the Crown Court. The third teacher would not be named, but it can be assumed that his name would have been in Anthony Edmonds diary.
In response to the arrests the school sent a letter to parents of the pupils who were and who had been at the school during the time affected, although to the best of my knowledge my own parents never received one. The letter contained a simple statement of what was happening, and to the best of my knowledge no apology for the distress caused to the pupils. I’m also unaware of whether it contained any advice with regards to the police. The pupils still at the school were instructed under threat of expulsion to not talk to any of the press. A statement by the headmaster, Jonathan Lee, was made to the press 2 asking any ex-pupils to talk to the police. Given that this was a local paper and not national, and that the pupils affected were boarders from around the world this would have been totally inadequate. On January 9th of 1990 both Peter O’Gorman and Michael Ling would appear in court charged with sexual offences against children. By the end of the year they would both be convicted and sentenced to 4 and 6 years in jail respectively. Anthony Edmonds would also be convicted and sentenced to 4 years. Several years later Trent College would be sued for the abuse by 2 other teachers who were never charged or convicted. The abuse in question happened between 1981 and 1983. While it can’t be confirmed without access to the court documents it’s very possible that these were Simon Anderson and Mr McGowan, both of whom would have been at the school at the same time as Anthony Edmonds. Certainly Mr McGowan is a probable suspect for reasons I’ll detail later.
To understand the events that led up to what happened at Crookham Court and the subsequent events at Trent College it’s important to understand the organizational structure of the school. For most people today what they know of boarding schools comes from watching or reading Harry Potter. About the only thing that the books have in common with actual boarding schools is the House structure. Apart from that there are no other similarities, except perhaps the attitudes of some of the pupils towards others. Trent College in the 1970s and 1980s was primarily an all boys school for secondary age children, the exception being girls in the 6th form. Boys in years 1 and 2, what would now be called years 7 and 8, went into Catterns. Boys from years 3 onwards, what would now be years 9 to 11, went into the following houses: Wortley, Blake, Shuker, Hanbury, and Wright. Boys would continue to reside in the houses they were in for their 6th form, while girls would go into Martin House for their 6th form years. After the events of 1990 these houses would be updated as the school was made fully co-ed and now incorporate a prep school, The Elms, and a boarding house for years 7-11 for girls, Bates House. The teachers would also have a flat in the same houses as the pupils, or in some cases a house attached to the school grounds.
The following details events from 1983 to 1989, during which time I was a boarding pupil in Wortley House. Given my situation at the school, being on a government assisted placing, I soon became the target for intense bullying from other pupils at the school. I’d actually gained my place due to being bullied at my previous school where it was felt that I was too intelligent for the school and my response to the bullying there would result in my eventually being expelled. I’d already knocked out one bully, and as the other bullies were far more physical in their abuse it was only going to be a matter of time before it was felt that I would escalate my response accordingly. It seems that the school completely failed to realise that my anger issues at the school were as a result of the bullying going on, and they had completely failed to grasp that the bullying was far more than just simple name calling. When the bullying started at Trent College it’s safe to say that I wasn’t going to take it lying down. There’s a certain irony that the very issues that made me a highly vulnerable child, may have protected me from an even worse fate. No teacher was going to try and abuse a child who could take a solid oak door off its hinges.
At the end of my first year in Trent College the housemaster of Wortley House retired. An abusive rugby obsessed teacher called “Butch” Baines. It should be noted that Mr Baines was physically abusive towards pupils and no sexual abuse was ever claimed by him. The following year Wortley House would be run by joint House Masters, Peter O’Gorman and Mr McGowan. Unfortunately I can’t remember Mr McGowan’s first name, only that his nickname was “Billy Whizz” due to an errant tuft of hair at the front. At some point during my second year, or possibly early in my third year at Trent College, Mr McGowan would punish myself and another pupil for something. It was probably due to a reaction to being bullied, but the result was that both of us were to be punished. It’s only in hindsight that the punishment was actually physical and sexual abuse, even though neither myself nor the other pupil were physically touched. Mr McGowan’s favourite punishment method was to force his victims to take a cold shower, and then afterwards force them to stand naked in front of him while telling them off. While the pupils were standing shivering from the cold it would become clear that during both the shower and the telling off his eyes were constantly looking down at the pupil’s genitals. It was after our punishment that I mentioned to the other boy being punished that Mr McGowan had actually been using the punishment to simply look at us while naked. He informed his parents who must have kicked up enough of a fuss with the school that Mr McGowan was removed from his role as joint House Master. He was still a teacher at the school, but it was clear he no longer held any authority over the pupils at Wortley House. This was the only time during my time at Trent College that I was subjected to any form of sexual abuse at the hands of any of the teachers.
On the last day of term at the end of my third year at Trent College one of the leaving pupils did quite possibly the bravest thing I have ever witnessed. This would be July 1986, and one of the pupils in Wortley House went around the entire house telling every single pupil he could find what Mr O’Gorman had done to him. The entire house now knew that the House Master was a paedophile. He also made sure that everyone was told that the headmaster, Mr AJ Maltby, had been told about the abuse and had threatened to expel him if he told anyone. With his education complete and the threat of expulsion over he’d made the decision that neither Mr O’Gorman or Mr Maltby should get away with their crimes. It didn’t quite work out the way he hoped. Instead of being whisked off in handcuffs Peter O’Gorman would instead be shifted back to where he started, as house tutor at Catterns. His reward for being outed as a paedophile was to be put back in charge of the youngest pupils in the school. It can be assumed that the threat of expulsion was used against every pupil that brought abuse to the attention of the headmaster. It’s also very clear that the reputation of the school was considered far more valuable than the welfare of the pupils under Mr Maltby’s care. We don’t know just how many times Mr Maltby was made aware of the abuse being committed, but we do know it was more than just a handful of times.
Anthony Edmonds
It is assumed that the police were investigating Anthony Edmonds around 1988, but this assumption is only based on the knowledge that a case must first be built against someone before they can take someone to court. What is known is that Anthony Edmonds tried to persuade his mother to destroy his diaries, this would be in 1988 or 1989. He was too late, the police had already obtained them from his mother’s house and sealed his fate. It is these diaries that persuaded the police to investigate the staff at Trent College, as it contained details of other abusers working at the school, some of whom were still teaching there. At the end of my fourth year at Trent College, in the summer of 1988, Mr Maltby retired, at the age of 60. While it could be simply the fact that he wished to retire at that age, it’s also rather coincidental that his retirement coincided with the start of the investigation of Crookham Court. One might suspect that he wished to retire with a clean record and not be known as the headmaster of the school when the inevitable court case came to light. Given that his retirement had been announced before the investigations into Crookham Court had begun it was almost certainly coincidence, but it would also protect him from the ensuing police investigation into the school.
In the early 1970s Anthony Edmonds would start teaching at Trent College, this would be 1973 or 1974 according to some of the pupils who were at the school at that time. His accommodation was a small flat in Wright House. The abuse is believed to a started before 1975, his method of grooming children was to target them around the age of 15, inviting them back to his flat where they would drink alcohol. Under the influence of alcohol he would then offer them money to perform sexual acts with him. This did not go unnoticed by the other pupils in the House, many of his victims would also be bullied by the other pupils, possibly because of perceived favouritism or possibly because of what they suspected was actually going on. During his court case it would be claimed that the majority of this abuse involved 2 boys. Around the same time other teachers at the school were seen to also invite young boys round after hours for drinks, given the revelations of Edmonds diary later it can be surmised that they were also engaged in the same abuse of children. Late 1970s or early 1980s, before 1983 at any rate, Anthony Edmonds was caught at the school when one of the pupils he was abusing sneaked a tape recorder into the room and recorded Anthony Edmonds abusing him. With absolute irrefutable evidence before him the headmaster, Mr Maltby, was left with no option but to sack Anthony Edmonds. In doing so however, instead of reporting the matter to the police he wrote a glowing resume for Anthony Edmonds that enabled him to obtain a teaching position at Crookham Court. The pupil was forced to sign an NDA, under threat of expulsion if it was mentioned to any other pupil. While teaching at Crookham Court he would continue to abuse the boys under his care. According to his diaries he would also invite boys to stay with him at his holiday cottage in Wales at the weekends where he would further abuse them. He would be convicted on July 4th, 1990 and sentenced to 6 years.
Peter O’Gorman
Along with after hours invites to his flat, Mr O’Gorman also had a barge on a local river or canal. This barge was used as a school trip venue for the scouts and would be for limited numbers of pupils. It would be common practice for the new 13 year old pupils to be invited. Mr O’Gorman used to ensure that there was always one pupil too many for the trip, meaning at least one pupil was expected to share his bed with him. Along with the barge he’d also be a regular visitor to the dormitories where it must now be assumed his intention was to watch the boys undressing ready for bed. While at Catterns prior to becoming a tutor at Wortley photos of naked children in the bath were discovered in his photography studio. Mr O’Gorman would also keep an extensive diary of the children he abused along with a score for each one. From memory he left the school after the summer of 1988 to take up a post at a children’s home, which is where his past finally caught up with him. It is my understanding that abuse at the children’s home is what eventually caught him, but it may also be the evidence in Anthony Edmonds diaries that persuaded the police to open the case against him. What is known is that he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children on April 6th 1990, 3 months before Anthony Edmonds would do the same. He would be sentenced to four years in jail. In 2015 the school would be sued for the abuse of a pupil by Mr O’Gorman 3. The school would settle out of court for £250,000 4.
Simon Anderson
Throughout all the talk of abuse at Trent College Simon Anderson’s name has cropped up time and time again. Unfortunately at this time I’ve seen no concrete evidence of his abuse, but I am given to understand that alongside Anthony Edmonds and Peter O’Gorman he was another teacher prone to inviting young boys back to his home to indulge in drinking sessions.
Mr McGowan
I’m not aware of other claims that actually name Mr McGowan as an abuser but I include him here based on my own personal experience of him. At the very least he was known for his habit of using cold showers as a means to ogle young boys genitals.
Michael Ling
Mr Michael Ling it turned out was hiding his abuse under the excuse that he was a naturist. He would often answer the door naked, as well as working in his garden naked. Again, I’m not aware of the full extent of his abuse, but can state that on at least one occasion he tried to persuade a young boy to strip naked and share his bed with him on a camping trip, ostensibly to keep the boy warm and let his clothes dry as he’d been soaked when his own tent had leaked. He would also persuade the boys to strip naked in front of him for swimming lessons. When on duty at Catterns he would insist that the bathroom door would be left open under the pretence of ensuring the young boys were washing their genitals, an act that was clearly designed as an excuse to allow him to spy on the boys while they were naked. It is understood that to the credit that when the news broke about why they were arrested, and somehow still allowed to keep teaching, that Mr Ling was punched by one of the PE teachers. Mr Grindle, you will always be a legend among the teachers at that school. Michael Ling would be convicted in October 1990.
Unknown
Another teacher has also been named elsewhere previously, but no action was ever taken against him. The most common claim in the posts that I’ve seen involve the teachers touching the pupils, sometimes caressing them on the buttocks, sometimes fondling their genitals. From the court cases that are in the public domain we are also aware that at least 3 teachers also performed acts of sodomy with the children. In short, the pupils at Trent College were raped. In total that makes six teachers involved in the abuse of children at Trent College in the 1970s and 1980s. When the story finally broke the school went into damage limitation mode and yet again pupils were threatened with expulsion if they were to talk to the press. The new headmaster, Jonathan Lee, was intent on covering up the scandal just as his predecessor was. No pupils have ever received an apology.
Unknown 2
In 2015 it was announced by a local law firm that they had reached an out of court settlement with the school with regards to a historic claim of sexual abuse by 2 of the teachers at Trent College 5. Importantly it was claimed that the 2 teachers in question had never been convicted of their crime. This leaves open the question whether the 2 teachers were Simon Anderson and Mr McGowan, or whether the abuse at Trent College was actually far more widespread than previously thought.
Mr Maltby
Throughout the 15 years of ongoing abuse at the school one man knew about it all. Mr Anthony Maltby, while not accused of any sexual abuse himself, must bear as much of the guilt and shame of all those accused of abusing children at Trent College, as well as some of the abuse at Crookham Court. It was he who instead of informing the police when Anthony Edmonds left Trent College gave him a glowing resume allowing him to abuse others. It was he who threatened children with expulsion for speaking out about the abuse that was going on. His actions protected the abusers within his school and enabled them to continue abusing the children that parents had entrusted to his care. He must also bear the guilt and shame of failing every pupil that was abused, who went on to live with the shame of that abuse, and for those for whom that shame was too much and decided they could no longer continue living with that shame.
With Mr Maltby’s death in 2019 no pupil can ever receive a formal apology from him for the harms he caused. Instead, one should be made by the school itself. The failings of the successive headmasters to rectify the grave injustice inflicted on all the pupils that attended Trent College during these events must be addressed. First and foremost, there should be an apology for those who are no longer with us as a result of the abuse they received. Their untimely deaths were a direct consequence not only of the abuse they received but also of the callous way in which the school covered up the abuse. Secondly, an apology for all of the abuse survivors. Lastly, every pupil who went to the school from 1975 to 1990 is owed an apology for the danger that the school put them in by failing to act against the abuse that was happening. Every pupil was put at risk by the school actively covering up the abuse being committed and there is absolutely no shadow of a doubt that the school not only knew the danger that the children at the school were in, but actively allowed it to continue for over a decade. Ultimately it is the school’s responsibility to make amends as the ultimate authority under which everything happened. Mr Maltby, as headmaster, did everything to cover up the abuse at the school while working as the school. His successor, Mr Lee, did everything in his power to stop the pupils speaking up when the news broke, again using the threat of expulsions to force pupils into silence.
Due to how widescale the abuse of children in Private Schools was in the 1970s and 1980s and the fact that it can take decades before the victims can feel ready to open up about what happened to them we’ll never know the full extent of what was happening. What is clear is that these were not isolated incidents, this was a very broad issue across not a handful of schools, but across dozens of them. Potentially, this could have been an issue across hundreds of schools. After the dedicated school abuse Childline helpline was created in 1991 over 150 reports were made to the helpline. It is clear that this was simply the tip of the iceberg, victims of child sexual abuse in Private Schools in the United Kingdom number historically in the thousands, and many of those victims will never come forward. A later investigation by the police into abuse at private schools and prep schools would uncover abuse being committed at over 100 schools throughout the country, including at Eton College, although when the schools were eventually raided by the police Eton College was spared their scrutiny.
This post will be updated as and when new information becomes available.
References
1 The Mirror, May 2nd 2015
2 Nottingham Evening Post, September 21st 1989
3 Proceedings Issued Against Trent College – Uppal Taylor Solicitors
4 Trent College Award – Uppal Taylor Solicitors
5 Success Stories | Child Abuse Cases | Bolt Burdon Kemp
Media
This is so very important, and long overdue. My name is Magnus Shaw and was a Wortley boarder until 1982. As I recall, almost all fellow pupils knew of O’Gorman’s and McGowan’s sexual interest in us. I am unsure whether we knew how far that activity extended. If any of us were aware, we didn’t know how to intervene anyway.
Thankfully, I was never the victim of sexual abuse. However, Julian and Paul will attest to the savage beating I received at the hands of ‘Butch’ Baines.
The thought that some compatriots later took their lives, fills me with sorrow, but mostly wild anger. I too have struggled with my mental health in adulthood.
I have been a professional writer for 30 years, and I have extensive notes and drafts for a book concerning Trent College, and my time incarcerated within its walls. Obviously, I wouldn’t consider publication without consultation with you, Julian, and Paul.
There is so much still to say, but to end on a positive note, we are all comrades, with a bond forged in horror, injustice, and tragedy. But comrades nonetheless.
Thank you for this.
Magnus
Thanks, I can’t speak for the others but I think it’s more important now than ever that the story is told given how many of those affected are now of an age that they’ll start to disappear. I’d actually considered writing a book as well, but find that the biggest block is actually remembering the day to day stuff and when they happened. For example, I don’t recall all the teachers I had, but I do remember some. I remember the bullying, and the stealing (I would regularly have things stolen from my study room), and of course the McGowan incident and the pupil who broke his silence to warn everyone on his last day. The rest is a swirling mess of memories. Given how much I hated the school by the end it’s probably no surprise that my memories are mixed. Looking back it’s also somewhat of a miracle that no one died at the school, I certainly remember more than once a time when I wished I was dead, if I’d been a victim of the teacher’s abuse as well, that wish may have been granted.
I agree, it’s difficult to recall the exact timeline, but individual events remain quite clear (unsurprisingly).
I have already mentioned the violent assault on me, carried out by Baines – however, it is worth mentioning that O’Gorman and McGowan were lecherous paedophiles.
When one was changing into pyjamas in the dorm, O’Gorman would blatantly stand a few feet away and observe the genitals of anyone he chose. McGowan also used that same trick.
Many of us would turn our backs to ensure we weren’t observed like lumps of meat. But that wasn’t always possible.
Absolutely everyone knew this was likely to happen to them, and on one occasion, a fellow pupil confronted O’Gorman as he stared. He just chuckled. He knew he was protected.
For my part, I didn’t know how far he took his disgusting desires, at the time. I now know the extent of this predators ventures.
Uppal Taylor Solicitors successfully represented a former pupil in the conviction of Peter O’Gorman, Trent College. I don’t know if the firm are still operating as their website leads to a blank. But this was taken from their site whilst still active:
‘Uppal Taylor Solicitors are currently representing a former pupil of Trent College, Long Eaton, Derbyshire who alleges that sexual abuse was perpetrated against him by a male teacher at Trent in the 1980s.
It is contended that whilst a pupil at the school between 1983 and 1986, when the Claimant was between 13 and 16 years old, he was subjected to serious sexual abuse by a male teacher. Formal court proceedings have now been issued in the High Court.
Abuse of pupils at Trent College was the subject of a major criminal investigation by Derbyshire Police in the late 1980s. This investigation commenced following a referral from Thames Valley Police who were investigating Crookham Court Private School; at Crookham a former male teacher of Trent, Anthony Edmonds, had been implicated in serious sexual assaults against pupils. As a result of the investigations a number of teachers were convicted of serious sexual assaults against male pupils of the school.
On 4th July 1990 Anthony Edmonds pleaded guilty to 4 counts of buggery and 7 counts of indecent assault; he was sentenced to a total of 6 years in prison at Reading Crown Court.
On 6th April 1990 Peter James Joseph O’Gorman pleaded guilty to 2 counts of buggery, 1 count of attempted buggery and 3 counts of indecent assault; he was sentenced to 4 years in prison at Nottingham Crown Court.’
Trent College settles out of court
Bolt Burdon Kemp successfully represented Mr A in his claim for compensation for childhood sexual abuse suffered at the hands of two school teachers at Trent College. The abuse took place between 1981 and 1983, when Mr A was a pupil. He was aged 13 to 15 years old at the time and was subjected on numerous occasions to serious sexual assaults at the hands of two teachers who also abused many other pupils at the school.
Mr A did not tell the College about the abuse, or report it to the police at the time. In fact for over 20 years he kept silent about the abuse he had suffered. The claimant’s educational performance and behaviour deteriorated as the abuse intensified and when he was 15 years old he was told that he would have to leave the school or be expelled. The abuse had a profound and lasting effect upon the claimant. He suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and depression. He performed poorly in school exams and struggled to form a career.
Notwithstanding the fact that neither teacher was ever criminally convicted of sexually assaulting Mr A, a claim was successfully brought against Trent College on the basis that they were vicariously liable for the acts of abuse committed by their two employees. We initially secured early interim payments for Mr A which allowed him to have much needed psychiatric treatment before ultimately securing a final settlement in the sum of £125,000.
thank you for this article.
Edmonds abuse started before 1975. I left in 1975 and it was well known then.
I was punched in the face by three teachers in my time there
Simon Anderson
Baines
Collyer aka Fish
The other teachers must have known must have yet turned away
just normal life in public school
Thanks, I’ll update. As for the other teachers knowing even after one of the pupils outing O’Gorman to the entire school in 1986 none of the other teachers knew what was happening. It seems adults can be particularly blind to what children can see plainly.
don’t believe they didn’t know
don’t believe they did not know about visits to studies and alcohol
it was part of public school life.
going on long long before edmonds arrived
The rumour mill would have been very active amongst pupils and teachers alike. And the given nicknames for Edmonds and O’Gorman (although not very PC) were pretty damning in ‘Bender Edmonds’ and ‘Paedo Pog’.
Certainly by the time I was there the only suspicion we had about POG was that he was gay. Right up until the last day of term in 1986. As for the teachers, it may be that some did suspect, but I can’t believe they wouldn’t have acted unless Maltby told them in no uncertain terms that they’d be sacked with no reference. What I was told about Grindle at least would bear that out, his reaction to finding out Ling was abusing kids was to search him out and punch his lights out. Suspicions aside, he certainly didn’t know before Ling was arrested.
Well I left in 1984 and during our younger dormitory years of 79-81 at Wortley (where he was Deputy House Master) we had named him ‘Paedo Pog’ so we were all aware of his interest. Given that he would single one of us out when undressing for bed whilst he watched was pretty clear evidence. Also that he would invite one or two younger boys to his barge on the Tri-Weekly weekend holiday also rang alarm bells. And I was the one that found those multiple photos in his darkroom of naked school children in the bath during his time at the Catterns junior house which I am sure to have mentioned to my fellow house members. What we didn’t know was that he was actively abusing our fellow housemates. And his direct higher authority was Baines, the only teacher in the whole school that didn’t have a higher education degree. His merit to entering the school was a rugby background. What he lacked in intelligence he made up with brawn. I was often on the end of his physical punishments so can easily attest to his sadistic side. Baines and O’Gorman were completely different characters and I imagine that the Master’s Common Room attested to that difference. The likes of Baines and Peel in one corner not taking any interest or regard in the likes of Edmonds or O’Gorman. And furthermore you had the other Masters that found support in a bottle of alcohol. Maltby’s deputy Sadler was often half cut along with the head of choir Davey(?) who was always red wine flushed when giving us choir practice in his private room. But that’s another story…
I think that hits the nail on the head, it’s one thing calling someone “bender” or “paedo” when your only suspicion is that they a bit of a perve, it’s quite another knowing they’re actually abusing. And the teachers were definitely cliquey, so I can see them not talking to each other in the teacher’s common room. Last day in 1988 iirc one of the pupils broke into the art block and bricked up Sprakes’ door. I swear every other teacher knew who did it, but they all denied knowledge.
Also would like to say ‘well done’ for putting this all together – the needleblog was the only resource I ever found on the subject and it had gone relatively cold. Considering the long duration and significance of what happened at Trent the whole ‘event’ has left remarkably little trace on the internet. It surprises me that a book has never been written about what took place although any author(s) would have to tread so carefully to avoid opening old wounds amongst those who were victims. I count myself as one of the fortunate ones who avoided the direct abuse – first year as a boarder at Catterns 1973, and then Wortley day boy through until departure for uni in 1980; but POG was my house master and I spent a few uncomfortable times in his Wortley rooms thinking how strange he was as he reviewed those report cards we all had to do. As others have said, the cover up that was instigated (FFS moving Edmonds on so he could predate elsewhere) really gets my hackles up and though I am not a huge fan of apology-mania I do think the school should have by now issued some public statement on what happened and where they failed in their duty of care. Hiding under the cover of ‘it was the 70’s and 80’s, we did things differently then’ is frankly not good enough. As regards getting a response from the school – surely a letter signed by a group of pupils from that time would be likely to gain a bit more traction rather than individual approaches? I would be happy to sign such a letter……..if the school did not respond to a letter signed by say 50 plus ex pupils the next step would be to ask the local media why do they maintain their silence? The counter argument to this is that it risks opening old wounds to those who were directly abused and I appreciate that is a concern………
One of the issues that we may have with getting a petition letter together is that we’d need access to the OT list, and given that is pretty much controlled by the school that’s a definite no. Otherwise we’d have to just trust to people like us contacting as many people as they know. Not sure about you but I think I stayed in contact with about 5 people. Maybe a Facebook group dedicated to 1970s and 1980s pupils? But again it’s dependent on people using it. Agreed, the risk is opening old wounds, but again it should also help find closure for some who were abused and never got their apology or their day in court.
it’s very interesting to me that some people are suggesting that.teachers ( wont call them masters) did not know.
Abuse of children sexual l physical and psychological was rife at TC
It had been going on for many many years before edmond et all
arrived.
research alex rentons pod casts
public schools like the church like organised youth groups like children’s homes were zbd still are magnets for abusers wolves in sheep’s clothing often popular and charismatic
not with “shmeegle disease” as some think peados are.
but charismatic appearing kind and caring ro some people
others were repulsed
as a victim already since a young age I recognised edmonds as a abuser
don’t be fooled that abuse started with edmonds it did not
most od the abusers are now dead a few of the abused from 50s and 60s alive but not likely to come forward
I have no doubt it was happening before, but for many it started with Edmonds purely because he was the one that was caught first. I mentioned in my article though that one of the triggers for the police investigation was a diary found at the house of a retired teacher who had died. The police found enough there to start an investigation, but we’ll never know the true extent because many of them would have also died before then. I think a lot of people just assumed it was just a couple of schools affected, but by the time Childline setup a dedicated private school phoneline it suddenly became clear just how prevalent it really was. Over 100 schools were implicated, including Eton.
Certainly by the time I left Trent in 1989 there were teachers that did not know. Grindle’s response to finding out was to track down Ling and punch him. This might have been helped by the fact any pupil going to Maltby was silenced which would prevent them going to any of the other teachers. As I’ve said elsewhere though, as kids we suspected, but it’s different to knowing. No kid was going to go up to a teacher and say what they think.
Alex Renton has indeed done great work – the comments in this piece about how schools avoided taking responsibility seems particularly pertinent to Trent…..
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jul/27/alex-renton-private-school-abuse-radio-series-in-dark-corners
I was at Trent until 1988, and in Blake, Edmonds was my English teacher and also my tutor. so I did spend time alone with him in his study, broken biscuits were his favourite treat.
I do have a couple of memories, of this period.
i can’t remember how it happened but he did on one occasion chase me around his study. glad he didn’t catch me…
I also remember after weddings disappeared that I asked ken Pye (head house master) at the time, where he was as he hadn’t marked my work and missed a tutor meeting. he gave me several detentions and told me to never ask about him again, or I would be getting more detentions.
I hope the Mick grindle story is true, he was a forward at Nottingham rugby club, so I assume his punches would have been impressive. 😁
Mick grindle also won the national lottery £2.5m later on. maybe the universe thought he deserved a prize.
Exrtract from A celebration of Trent College 1866-2002 P161-164
J.Lee (headmaster)
As everything was so new and exciting, I can remember everything that happened in that first year with much greater clarity than recall more recent events. Although I did not know it at the time, a phone call in the presenter summer term from Esther Rantzen, the of the popular Sunday evening That’s Life’, was programme the first which was indication | had of an event to shake not only Trent but all independent schools, especially boarding be establishments, and was to the principal cause subsequently for Government’s passing of The Children Act.’ A was proprietory school in Berkshire, called Crookham Court, the focus of a child abuse investigation by the team of That’s Life’. Although Esther Rantzen made a strong case in her programme that there were three teachers, guilty of child abuse, the police could initially not find of these the necessary evidence to support a prosecution of any teachers. However, matters became a great deal easier for the police when, in August, a Mr Edmonds, who was the father of one of the three teachers at the centre of the investigation, found 105 exercise books in his garage which were the personal diary of his son, Anthony, and which because of the evidence in them, he delivered to Newbury police station. In this diary, Anthony Edmonds had written down all his sexual activity with some of the children whom he had taught and, as it eventually transpired, his offences were both of a serious nature and extremely numerous. I became heavily involved in the investigation because Anthony Edmonds had taught at Trent for nine years, from 1974 to 1983, before being dismissed by Tony Maltby. According to his diary, whilst teaching at Trent Anthony Edmonds had, without doubt, committed 1485 sexual assaults and this involved 65 boys. Furthermore, in his diary he listed the alleged activity of other teachers at Trent and so this meant I had to work closely with the police to ascertain whether there was any truth in these allegations. In the end, the whole investigation led to my dismissal of three current members of the Common Room and the police prosecution of Anthony Edmonds and two other Trent teachers mentioned in Edmonds’ diary.
Clearly the impact on Trent was enormous, but it had also had a considerable effect on every school in Britain as their Head teachers all appreciated they might have Some ‘doubtful’ teachers and they were unsure how to resolve what was unfounded rumour and what was fact. Our openness with everyone about the details of the case when we had to go public, meant that the actual impact on Trent was much less than I ever imagined. I was certainly most grateful for the loyalty of so many at a time when it could have been so easy to respond with greater emotion to something that was clearly very shocking.
It’s interesting seeing the various accounts of what happened back then. Also that he mentions “three current members of the Common Room”, the other 2 mentioned were clearly Ling and O’Gorman but I believe O’Gorman had already moved on. Was Anderson still there in 1989? The last of the 3 I’d guess at McGowan. Thanks for adding this, it’s a shame that he wrote to the parents and not the former pupils who could very possibly have brought more evidence against the 3 who were sacked if only they’d been made aware at the time.