A 81-year-old man convicted of abusing young boys when he was headmaster at a private school in Reading has been jailed for 11 years.

Former teacher Frank Skipwith, from Oxfordshire, was sentenced on Monday, January 31 at Hove Crown Court after he abused a number of children at two different boarding schools over a 12-year period.

According to reports, Skipwith become headteacher at Crosfields School on Shinfield Road in Reading in 1985 where he stayed until 2000.

In December 2021, he was convicted of three counts of indecent assaults on a boy under 14 in 1993 at Crosfields, a fee-paying independent school where it currently costs up to £5,750 for one-term’s education.

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Following an eight-day re-trial in, he was also found guilty of indecent assault against two boys under 14 at Fernden preparatory school near Midhurst, Sussex, between 1981 and 1985.

Skipwith, of Eynsham, had first been convicted on 13 March 2020 at Lewes Crown Court after a seven-week trial, of 17 indecent assaults against ten boys then between eight and 14-years-old at Fernden between 1981 and 1985.

 

Frank Skipwith was jailed at Hove Crown Court

Frank Skipwith was jailed at Hove Crown Court

 

The jury in that trial failed to agree on verdicts in relation to charges involving the two other boys at Fernden, of which he has now been convicted after the re-trial, as well as being convicted of the further charges of offences at Crosfields Schools in 1994.

His distressing offences at Crosfields were only reported to police in 2020, when the victim saw media reporting of the first trial.

Detective Constable Chris Smith said: "As headmaster, Skipwith was responsible for the welfare of the children at Fernden. He appeared to be a devoted family man, kindly and charming, and lived in a flat next to the dormitories with his wife and three sons who were among the 100 pupils at the school at one time and another.

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"However from the evidence we gathered from his victims, it was clear that he abused his position of trust and authority for his own sexual gratification over many years.

"He would regularly enter dormitories at night and assaults boys in their beds, under guise of comforting them. In some cases he had disciplined and even beaten boys first, often for dubious reasons, then adopting a sudden forgiving approach which they naturally welcomed.

"But his victims kept these distressing secrets largely to themselves, though occasionally confiding in family members, until two of them came forward and contacted us quite independently during 2017. Our enquiries then traced the others.

"All the victims supported our investigation throughout and attended Court to give their evidence, which was rigorously tested by cross-examination on behalf of Skipwith.

"We will always take seriously and follow up such reports, no matter how long ago the events are said to have occurred, to seek justice for victims wherever possible."