Retired teacher jailed for sexually assaulting boys at a West Sussex boarding school

Piers Le Cheminant was convicted of 10 indecent assaults against nine boys over a 21-year period. The 77-year-old targeted boys at Oakwood boarding school in Chichester, as it was then, until one of the pupils made a complaint against him, Winchester Crown Court was told. He was then able to take up a position at Salisbury Cathedral School in Wiltshire, where his offending continued.

Le Cheminant, of Newton Abbot, Devon, would call boys to the front of the class and grope their buttocks while their classmates watched, the court was told. It heard he would also watch the boys shower after they had played sport and took some of his victims somewhere private, where he would sexually assault them.

Judge Timothy Mousley KC said the defendant had shown a ‘lack of remorse’ for his crimes, which happened between the 1960s and 1980s.

He said: ‘One of the children was only eight years old when you started to abuse him. Each of these boys was particularly vulnerable and you took advantage of that.

‘The harm was severe in some cases and you breached the trust which others expected of you. You have left them with appalling memories of their time at school.’

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As well as being jailed for nine years, Le Cheminant was given a lifelong sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.