Cambridge-educated Deputy Head of ?15,000-a-year Catholic Private School Who Blew ?600 a Week on Paedophile Drug Parties Is Jailed for Horrific Stash of Porn Images Featuring Children As Young As Two
By Rebecca Camber
The deputy head of a scandal-hit Catholic private school was jailed today after admitting getting hooked on child pornography blowing ?600 a week on paedophile drug parties. Peter Allott, 37, led a double life working as a high-flying devout Christian headteacher, while at the weekends he indulged in drug-fuelled sex orgies, swapping sickening images of children with other perverts. The Cambridge–educated deputy headteacher became addicted to child sex images and Class A drugs after being introduced to both at 'chemsex' parties organised on gay dating app Grindr. He amassed nearly 400 horrific images of children as young as two, which he kept on his iPhone and on a hard drive in his office at the ?15,000-a-year St Benedict's School. Investigators also found the Class A drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, in a raid of his home, a property owned by the school. The private school in Ealing, West London, which counts comedian Julian Clary, Tory peer Chris Patten and actor Andy Serkis amongst its alumni, has been dogged by scandal after one teacher was convicted of nearly four decades of sexual abuse of children and another priest is still on the run from a child abuse charge. The school and its linked Benedictine monastery, Ealing Abbey, was condemned four years ago for a 'lengthy and cumulative failure' to protect pupils in its care from child abuse. The scandal, which did not involve Allott, led to five monks and three former teachers being linked to child abuse. Although Allott was working at the school at the time of the abuse, investigators do not believe he abused any children in his care. Blackfriars Crown Court heard how the former Tory councillor, who served on the Perivale ward from 2006-2010, fooled parents with his devout Christian public persona, while in private he indulged in drug-fuelled orgies with other perverts. Jailing Allott for 33 months, Judge Peter Hillen said: 'You are someone who has degrees and Master's degrees and studying for a doctorate. 'Someone who had early ambitions to enter the church and then education, who rose to be a deputy head of a prestigious school. 'Someone who has engaged in public service and political service. Someone who has engaged in charity work. Someone who was a high flyer. 'All of that has been destroyed and is fully in ruins by what, in the words of your own counsel, was an addiction to debauchery. 'Two years after you sadly lost your mother and shortly after the death of your grandmother, you started to seek relief from your grief in chemsex parties, talking to other potential sexual partners on the Grindr networking site and meeting them, using Class A drugs, crystal meth and M-Cat, then engaging in sexual activity.
'It was at the drug parties that you became aware of, and addicted to, indecent images of children. I use the phrase of a paedophile ring, that's precisely what that was. 'You were leading in effect a double life that over the weekends you would engage in chemsex parties using crystal meth and M-Cat and having sex with multiple partners but also watch these images. 'Then on Monday morning you would put on your suit and you would be the brilliant, high-flying deputy headmaster doing your public duty and your work for society. 'A split personality, the devoted life on one side but the bespectacled deputy head master was a lie because the other side of your life was one of debauchery.' Bespectacled Allott sat quietly with his lip trembling as the court heard of his two-years of paedophilia. When detectives from the National Crime Agency's specialist child abuse team arrested Allott in December last year, they found nearly 700 illegal images and videos of children and extreme pornography. You were leading in effect a double life that over the weekends you would engage in chemsex parties and then on Monday morning you would put on your suit and be the brilliant, high-flying deputy headteacher Judge Peter Hillen Michael Shaw, for the prosecution, said: 'He found himself in a spiral of addiction to drugs and took part in 'chemsex' parties whereby he would binge on drugs at the weekend and engage in viewing these images with likeminded individuals.' Mr Shaw said when Allott was asked about the fate of the children in the images, he said: 'I would be surprised if some of them were still alive.' Allott admitted possessing 25 'grossly offensive' images on a hard drive and sharing the images with other offenders. He also pleaded guilty to possession of drugs. In mitigation, Daniel Taylor said Allott offended after losing his mother to cancer and then his grandmother. A spokesman for the school said the community was 'shocked' by the former deputy head's offending. Allott, who taught there from 2004 and was promoted to deputy head in 2012, often defended the school's legacy, assuring prospective parents touring the school that the culture of child abuse had been eradicated. Father David Pearce, the former head of the junior school, was jailed for eight years in 2009 after being convicted of abusing five boys over a period of 36 years. Another former abbot, Father Laurence Soper, jumped bail before he could be charged with child abuse offences and remains on the run. A spokesman for the school said: 'St Benedict's has been shocked and saddened by the offences committed by Mr Allott. He has already resigned and will not be returning to it. 'We would reiterate that there remains no evidence any pornographic material was found on school computers or that any other members of the school community have been involved in or exposed to the material Mr Allott was using.'
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