TIMES INVESTIGATION
Top school hid sex abuse claims
●Ampleforth pupils ‘denied justice’ at trial of ex-teacher ● Judge and police criticised as former student’s suicide revealed
A bungled inquiry linked to a cover-up of alleged sex abuse at Britain’s leading Catholic school denied justice to a teacher’s child victims, former pupils have claimed.
Paul Sheppard, a Canadian who taught at Ampleforth College, was found not guilty last year of indecently assaulting a boy there 27 years ago. The jurors at his trial were under the impression that the former pupil, aged 11 when the crime was said to have been committed in 1989, was the sole complainant. They were not told that:
•Ampleforth hushed up a potential scandal in 1989 after several young pupils complained of Dr Sheppard stroking, touching and kissing boys. He was asked to leave but police were not informed.
•Dr Sheppard, now 53, was arrested in 2014