Teacher guilty of sexual assaults

3:25pm Monday 1st October 2001

A TEACHER at an elite public school who wrote on a boy's bottom in face paint has been found guilty of sexually assaulting three pupils.

Timothy Knight, aged 27, of Newlands Park, Sydenham, was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault by an Old Bailey jury, last Tuesday.

All of the assaults took place on a school trip to the Breacon Beacons and a hockey tour to Holland, in October last year.

He used these as opportunities to assault them under the guise of games where boys' trousers were pulled down or they would be picked by their underpants.

Other teachers at the south London school noticed Knight had a very “hands-on” approach to the boys.

Knight, who insisted on supervising the pupils at bedtime and in the showers, was cleared of 15 other counts relating to nine other boys.

The jury heard on one occasion he used face paint to write a “W” on each cheek of a boy's bottom, which would spell “WOW” when he bent over.

One boy told police: “He encouraged us to take photos of each other's bottoms and said if we get pictures of rude things to put them in a box.”

Prosecutor Michael Logsdon said: “Debagging, wedgying, playfights, boisterousness, frolicking when naked or semi-naked, were deliberately contrived to cultivate a background ambience of play which could be exploited for Mr Knight's sexual consumption.

“He was ever-ready with his own camera in hand.”

His sordid activities only came to light when a parent saw a picture of her son in the nude.

Judge James Reid QC ordered pre-sentence reports and warned Knight he faces jail. Knight will be sentenced on October 19.

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