Six former staff at a Worcestershire boarding school have been accused of allowing a cruel culture of sexual and physical abuse to ‘flourish’ on a ‘systematic scale’. It was alleged that sexual activity took place between boys at the Rhydd Court School in Malvern ‘unchecked’.
Prosecutors said that teachers not only ‘did little or nothing to prevent it’ but also ‘used it to their advantage’ in order commit their own offences against pupils, ranging from making them watch sexual intercourse to buggery – today referred to as rape.
Michael Connor, aged 71, John Dixon, 84, Terence Heath, 76, Marie Handy, 53, Charmaine James, 64, and David Sykes, 78, went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court today, Friday, August 16, in a case which is expected to last four months. Each has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit child cruelty and deny one or more child sex offences.
Five other co-accused have been named in the indictment but three of them have since passed away, including former headmaster James Moore and his wife and Cynthia Moore who was school matron. One other is ‘out of the jurisdiction’ while another faces a separate trial at a later date.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, opening the case, said: “In summary the case involves allegations of cruelty and physical and sexual assault and abuse of children at a school in Malvern in Worcestershire, between the late 1970s and 1991. The prosecution case is that children who attended that school suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse on a systematic scale at the hands of both the other children that were there and members of staff.
“This abuse took place over that period of many years. Those who worked at the school allowed a cruel culture of neglect and ill-treatment to flourish. That culture allowed sexual activity between pupils, some as young as eight or nine, to flourish virtually unchecked. Some sexual acts between pupils were consensual but others were not, others were violent and forced.”
She stated the school was for ‘extremely vulnerable children from difficult backgrounds’, some of whom had behavioural problems, while others had learning difficulties and significant mental health issues. Ms Karmy-Jones continued: “The prosecution say these defendants were part of a group of teachers and staff members who were aware of what was going on but did little or nothing to prevent it, did little or nothing to protect children in their care. Rather, they used it to their own advantage going on to commit similar offences against the children themselves.
“In some cases this was quite brazen, knowing children would not report it or if the child did happen to complain fellow staff members would take no action as they too were involved in similar activities. There was a blanket understanding, say the Crown, nothing would be done.
“They may have also calculated if a child were to complain that child would unlikely be believed, with children coming from difficult backgrounds, who would believe a child from a difficult background?”
Ex headmaster James Moore was described as an ‘abrasive, controlling, bully’ who was ‘notorious for corporal punishment’, with the prosecution saying he often used a cane or slipper, even after physical chastisement was banned in 1986. He was also accused of multiple sex attacks on boys. Moore died in 2020 aged in his early 80s, the court heard.
The jury was told his wife Cynthia Moore ‘did not have the right temperament’ to be matron for such a school. She was described as ‘harsh and austere’ and was alleged to have participated in the abuse, including conducting ‘inappropriate testicular examinations’ and watching on as others including her husband sexually attacked children. She died last year aged 82, the prosecution confirmed.
Moving on to the defendants on trial, Heath served as the deputy headteacher, lived on the school grounds and was friends with James Moore, it was said. The court heard Connor was mainly a science teacher before becoming senior master of the upper senior school.
Dixon was hired as a woodwork and metalwork teacher while Sykes was the art teacher who some described as a ‘good bloke’ and ‘one of the best’ tutors. James and Handy were ‘house mothers’ at the school. The jury was told that Rhydd, also known as RCS, typically had up to 66 boarding pupils and 24 day pupils at any one time.
Ms Karmy-Jones stated it was located in the ‘idyllic’ setting of Hanley Castle but was also ‘isolated’, while she described the inside as a ‘rabbit warren’ of rooms, corridors and dormitories. She explained one of the school’s punishment methods was to place the ‘worst behaved’ pupils, who had allegedly been involved in sexual activity with other pupils, in ‘group 5’, as opposed to those in group 1 who had the most privileges. She said: “The effect of the punishment was to place the victims with the abusers. Put them all together, shut a door and leave them to it, as it were.”
Among a long list of individual allegations the court was told Sykes punched one boy in the face so hard that he hit his head on a tree and perforated his ear drum. The jury was also told about a practise called ‘bed jumping’ where teachers would ‘come and abuse boys at night-time’.
It was said James offered to teach one boy how to masturbate and took a boy into a bedroom where she ‘instigated sexual activity’. The jury was also told about ‘runners’; pupils who tried to flee the school only for Heath and Connor to allegedly drive a bus of older boys to track them down and ‘rugby tackle’ them.
James Moore was accused of raping multiple victims in his office as well as sexually attacking some pupils jointly with Connor and Heath. The jury was told that Rhydd Court School was forced to close following an investigation into pupil-on-pupil sexual activity in 1991 only to re-open under a new name later that year with many of the same staff still serving. It was later recommended that James Moore be dismissed as headmaster but he was allowed to take early retirement on the grounds of ill-health.
All six defendants have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit child cruelty between January 1, 1979 and July 31, 1991. Connor, aged 71, of Crofton, in Wakefield, Yorkshire, further denies two charges of conspiracy to commit buggery, two counts of conspiracy to commit indecent assault on a male, three counts of indecent assault on a male, three offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two charges of buggery.
Dixon, aged 84, from Burgh le Marsh, in Lincolnshire, further denies an additional child cruelty offence, three charges of indecent assault on a male and two counts of buggery. Heath, aged 76, from Hanley Castle, in Malvern, Worcestershire, further denies conspiracy to commit buggery and conspiracy to commit indecent assault on a male.
Handy, aged 53, from Bredon, in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, further denies indecent assault on a male. James, aged 64, of West Scotstown, in Banffshire, Scotland, further denies two counts of indecent assault on a male and one charge of indecency with a child. Sykes, aged 78, from Rotherham, in Yorkshire, further denies indecent assault on a male and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
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