Ex-housemaster Guilty of Sexually Abusing Boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School

London Evening Standard
January 27, 2015

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/exhousemaster-guilty-of-sexually-abusing-boys-at-westminster-cathedral-choir-school-10006249.html

Abuser: David Lowe (Picture: PA)

A former housemaster at a prestigious Catholic private school in London has been found guilty of sexually abusing pupils there in the 1970s and 1980s.

David Lowe, 61, abused the children as they slept in their dormitory beds at Westminster Cathedral Choir School.

He also targeted his ten victims - who cannot be named for legal reasons - during singing lessons.

Southwark Crown Court heard he left sweets and treats in the lockers of those who were part of his "special group".

A jury found Lowe guilty of 15 counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 14 years old today after about nine hours of deliberations.

Lowe, who now faces a prison sentence, stood in the dock and looked straight ahead without any change of expression as each verdict was announced.

Judge Martin Beddoe granted him conditional bail to next appear at the same court for sentencing.

He said this was so the victims had the chance to come and see him jailed if they wished, noting that "for some of those who have had troubled lives since, it might provide some closure and assistance".

The judge told Lowe, who is now retired from teaching, that it was inevitable that " you will receive a sentence of imprisonment on the offences on which you now stand convicted."

He attacked his victims, boys aged eight to 13, between 1978 and 1984.

Many of them studied at the ?16,000-a- year choir school, while others were abused at the Benedictine monk-run Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

Lowe invited the youngsters to his flat and "spanked" them when they had broken school rules.

He also crept into the vulnerable schoolboys' dormitory and intimately touched them while carrying out night time checks.

A former pupil told the court he was 10 years old when he was abused.

The inappropriate touching began as "massages" during piano lessons, but Lowe started to slide his hands into his trousers.

In 1981, one of Lowe's alleged victims complained about being repeatedly abused by him, and shortly afterwards the teacher left the prestigious school, Philip Bennetts QC, prosecuting, told the court.

However, it was not long before he started working at Ampleforth College, where he abused four of his 10 victims.

Jurors heard Lowe had a "small group of pupils that he was extra friendly with", and even invited a select few to his wedding.

One victim recalled Lowe inviting him to his room at the choir school and asking him to remove his trousers and lie across his lap.

The man told the trial: "He called me upstairs, and I remember thinking 'here we go again, I am going to get some more of this'.

"I remember he sat me down on the sofa, and he told me to take my pants and trousers off, which I duly did.

"Why I don't know, but kids do these things I guess."

The man described how Lowe fondled him for around half an hour, saying what happened in the music rooms had been "like a warm up act".

Lowe, of Bristol, is due to be sentenced on February 5.