Questions over Trial As Headteacher Cleared of Sex Abuse Allegations in Just 15 Minutes
Telegraph
A respected headmaster has been cleared by a jury in just 15 minutes after "unbelievable" allegations he molested an unruly pupil subjected him to a year-long court ordeal. James Bird, 53, was arrested at his desk after he was accused of assaulting a boy more than decade ago when he was head of a Church of England primary school. The pupil, described as "aggressive, confrontational and challenging" by staff, had been sent to Mr Bird's study for talking back to a teacher in class. Ten years later the pupil, now 20, went to police after a drinking session with a friend to claim he was forced to perform sex acts upon Mr Bird as "punishment" for being naughty at St Peter's C or E Primary School, in Accrington, Lancashire. During the inquiry Mr Bird was suspended and computer and phones were seized from his home in Leyland - but no inappropriate material was found. This week following a trial at Preston Crown Court, Mr Bird, who is currently headmaster at Newton Bluecoat Church of England Primary near Kirkham, was cleared of four counts of gross indecency. Jurors dismissed the claims almost as soon as they had retired to consider their verdicts. They retired at 12.41pm on Thursday and came back at 12.56pm. After the case Mr Bird, a devout churchgoer and father-of-four, said in a statement he was looking forward to getting back to work. He said: "I'm very happy that the truth has come out. It was made crystal clear in court these incident did not occur and it has been very difficult since these allegations came to light. "I'd like to thank my many friends colleagues, parents of pupils and other well wishers for all their support prayers and kindness and also particularly the support of our church. We have taken enormous strength from them all. "Their strong faith and prayers, along with ours have made these 11 months bearable. After 338 very difficult days my family and I need to get our lives back to normal. "I am now looking forward to spending some quality time with my 13-year-old daughter who I have not been allowed to be alone with since before Christmas last year. "Secondly I'm looking forward to returning to my fantastic job as a headteacher and thanking my deputy and all the staff for the wonderful work they have done in my absence." Reverend David Lyon, of St Annes Parish Church, who was chairman of governors at St Peter's and who gave a character reference as part of Mr Bird's defence case, said: "I am delighted for Mr Bird and I am very pleased indeed that he has been exonerated. He can get on with his life now. "But the fact remains the jury was only out a few minutes, so clearly it did not take them long to make a decision. I wonder why this case was brought. I did have contacts in the wider community and if anyone had reason to be concerned they would have had opportunities to tell me." "But Mr Bird was thoroughly professional. His approach to children was one that he wanted them to excel and be the best they could possible be. It's unbelievable." The court heard Mr Bird was accused of molesting the young boy on "seven or eight occasions" between September 1 2002 and April 30 2004 when he was ten after he had been sent out of lessons for bad behaviour. The complainant told a jury when he was taken into Bird's office for the first time, he thought he would be given lines to do as a punishment. He said: "He used to say 'you're bad aren't you?' and 'you have to do this, this is your punishment'. I just cannot get it out of my head what he has done now that I am older. It has just messed up my life." He added: "I did not know what he was going to do. Normally you get lines that you have to write. We went to his office. He sat down and we did talk a bit about why I was misbehaving, but we did not really talk for that long. That is when he said, 'it is more serious than you think and you are going to have to take a punishment for it'. That is when he started making me do stuff." "I said 'no, get off me, get off me'. I was actually crying. The second time, it was exactly the same as the first time, but after that time, when he used to say 'do it', I would do it because I knew it would only last a couple of minutes and then I could get out." He claimed the abuse stopped when he realised he would not be sent out of lessons if he behaved well. It was claimed on one occasion he was disciplined by Mr Bird, who took him out of class to his office, where he shut the door and blinds and forced the boy to perform sex acts on him before calling his mother in to school to discuss his behaviour. He told the court: "My mum came in, she was not happy. I wanted to tell her, but I couldn't. I did not know what to say or where to start. She would have believed me, she knew when I was telling the truth or not, but I just did not want to tell her that I had done it because it is not right. "My mouth was opening to tell her what was happening so she could take me home and never bring me back there again but it wouldn't come out. She would have believed me because she's like that, my mum. She knew if I was telling the truth or not and she knew if I was lying. " In December last year, while he was drunk, the man told a close friend about his claims and he was encouraged to report Mr Bird to police. He told officers: "There's so many bad people in the world and if people don't step forward to stop them doing it they get away with it. "I'd rather just lock it up inside and throw away the key and forget about it." In an interview, hours after his arrest Mr Bird blasted the man's claims as being "absolutely ridiculous" and told officers he had always had an open door policy when disciplining pupils. He said he remembered the pupil, telling officers: "He wasn't always a good boy, I remember that." But he said he could not remember any specific incidents where he had been involved in disciplining the schoolboy or spoken to him in his office. Joan Smith, a former colleague of Mr Bird, recalled the boy's behaviour being "confrontational and challenging" at times and added: "I often wondered what his aggression was about. "He was quite an aggressive boy and I couldn't understand the reason. We got on well and had a good relationship." On Friday DC Karen Parker, of Lancashire Police, said: "Whilst we are disappointed with the outcome of this trial, we of course respect the decision of the jury and I would like to thank them for their consideration of this case. "Lancashire Constabulary remains committed to investigating allegations of sexual offences, no matter how historic, and no matter what the role, position and status of the alleged offender, and we would encourage anyone who has been a victim to come forward safe in the knowledge that they will be treated sensitively and professionally." A spokeswoman for the CPS said: "The jury have had an opportunity over the course of the trial to hear and fully consider both the prosecution and the defence cases and we of course respect the verdicts."
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