Kent Online
November 23, 2009
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2009/november/23/former_school_teacher_jailed.aspx
A former school headteacher has been jailed for 12 months for sexually abusing boys almost 40 years ago.
After leaving Penshurst CE Primary School, John Blackman moved to the north and became a Catholic priest. He has since retired.
His crimes finally caught up with him when his two victims complained about the abuse that took place in the early 1970s.
Maidstone Crown Court heard Blackman, now 75, became head of the school for children up to the age of 11 in the late 1960s.
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Edmund Fowler, prosecuting, said one of the victims contacted another former teacher at the school in 2007 and revealed what had happened to him.
He had discovered Blackman was a clergyman in Ripon, North Yorkshire, and wrote to the bishop there about the abuse.
He told police Blackman asked him to stay behind and read to him. He was then touched over his shorts.
He told the boy: "You won't tell anyone about our secret reading sessions, will you? Keep it a secret just between us."
The prosecutor said it was accepted the assaults happened more than once.
The boy told his horrified parents and his furious father contacted Blackman. He promised nothing further would happen.
Mr Fowler said Blackman behaved in a similar way with the other boy after asking him to remain behind and read to him.
But this time Blackman undid his own trousers and got the boy to touch him.
Blackman, of Ripon, at first denied all the allegations but then admitted one charge of indecency with a child and one of indecent assault.
Judge Philip St John-Stevens said Blackman held a position of responsibility and children were entrusted to his care.
"You abused that position of trust," he said. "Both these boys still live with the crime you committed on them.
"Although these are old offences, they cannot be overlooked. They are serious offences."
Blackman's name will appear on sex offenders' register for 10 years.
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