Deputy Head at Catholic Private School Was Addicted to Child Abuse Images and "Chemsex" Parties
By Sam Webb
The deputy head of a scandal-hit Catholic private school became hooked on child abuse images after getting embroiled in a drug-taking paedophile ring that met on gay dating app Grindr. Pervert Peter Allott, 37, was introduced to child sex images and became addicted to Class A drugs - spending up to ?600-a-week - at 'chemsex' parties. He kept child abuse images on his iPhone and on a hard drive found in his office at the ?15,000-a-year St Benedict's School, which includes comedian Julian Clary, former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten and Lord Of The Rings actor Andy Serkis amongst its former pupils. Cambridge University graduate Allott was a teacher at the scandal hit school in Ealing, west London, where one priest is on the run from a child abuse charge and another was convicted of nearly four decades of abuse. The school was heavily criticised in a report into its protection of children from abuse. Jailing Allott for 33 months at Blackfriars Crown Court today Judge Peter Hillen said the reputation of the 'high-flier' had been destroyed. He said: "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."
Judge Hillen continued: "Two years after you sadly lost of 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. "The consensual sexual activity between you and other people is of no concern of this court save for it was at the drug parties that you became aware of, and addicted to, indecent images of children. "You watched videos, moving images, of child sex abuse. That would lead you to online chat room Zoom where you and others, as many as 25 at a time I have been told, would watch and exchange the images. "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 was master doing your public duty and your work for society," he continued. "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." Allott, a former Tory councillor, also admitted possessing the Class A drug MDMA which was found in a raid of his home, a property tied to the school. He wore glasses and a prison-issue purple jumper in the dock and sat stoney-faced throughout the hearing where the court was told of his two-years of paedophilia. His lips trembled when his mother was mentioned and he spoke only to say "Thank you very much", to the judge as he was led to the cells. Detectives from the National Crime Agency's (NCA) specialist child abuse team arrested Allott and he was charged with possessing nearly 700 illegal images and videos. The majority were found on the hard drive in his office at the school and were classified as the most extreme in nature. Michael Shaw, for the prosecution, said: "In interview he stated he engaged seeking homosexual company through an online dating site called Grindr which involved him meeting other men who engaged in taking Class A drugs, normally crystal meth. "In order to attract them he would raise the question of child abuse. If they expressed an interest he offered to show them images he had. "On the hard drive he had a selection of images of different sexes and ages he showed prospective partners on the basis it would arouse them. "He 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 like minded individuals." Mr Shaw said among websites he visited were "Nasty Chem Pigs" and associated online with a David O'Reilly whose online chat name was "London Paedo". The prosecutor said he shared images on Zoom and had image capture software to save pictures when others sent them to him. Mr Shaw said: "He was alarmed by some of it. He said he was surprised some of them were still alive." Officers found 417 images and videos of children on the hard drive kept in his school office when they performed a search on December 7 last year. They also raided his house and found a further 274 still and moving images on an Apple laptop and iPhone. Allott also admitted possessing 25 "grossly offensive" images on a hard drive and most gravely sharing the images with other offenders on the Zoom photo and video sharing programme. Allott's arrest came as the school and its linked Benedictine monastery, Ealing Abbey, were still reeling in the wake of a previous scandal. They were condemned in 2011 for a "lengthy and cumulative failure" to protect pupils after five monks and three former teachers were linked to child abuse. Lord Carlile QC reviewed the controversy and criticised the abbey's handling of Father David Pearce. Pearce abused boys at the school for more than 35 years while a former abbot, Father Laurence Soper, jumped bail before he could be charged with child abuse and is still on the run. Allott, who grew up in Barnsley, Yorkshire, and graduated from St Edmunds College Cambridge and Durham universities, was not involved in the previous scandal. In mitigation, Daniel Taylor said Allott got into chemsex parties after landing the deputy head job and losing his mother to cancer and then his grandmother. He said: "As his life spiralled out of control those parties, and the individual who attended them, became more debauched in their nature."
He added that he also became involved in "slamming", the act of having sex with multiple men at the same time. The defence added: "On Christmas Day he was victim of a serious sexual assault when a newspaper clipping found its way onto the wing Mr Allott was remanded." A spokesman for the school said the community was "shocked" by the former deputy head's offending. He 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. "The school believes that our robust safeguarding policies and high-level IT filtering and monitoring facilities, have reduced the risk that any pupils could have been subjected to." The defendant had started working at the school in 2004 and was promoted to deputy head in 2010. Allott, previously of Marchwood Crescent in Ealing, admitted three counts of making indecent photos of children on or before December 7, 2015. He also admitted one count of possessing extreme pornography, one of sharing indecent photos of children and one of possessing a Class A substance. Allott, who must sign the sex offenders register, received 32 months' jail time for the child abuse offences and an extra month for the drugs possession.
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