NOVEMBER 2011

Former chaplain at Harrow school jailed for child abuse

A FORMER chaplain has been jailed for three and a half years after pleading guilty to sexually abusing children.

Leslie Carter, 84, from Bath, pleaded guilty on September 13 to nine counts of indecent assault of children between 1956 and 1978.

The victims were three boys aged between seven and 12 years at the time of the abuse.

The first victim contacted police to report that he had been abused by Carter while at a school in Cape Town, South Africa.

In March last year, a second victim contacted Quintain Hall School, in Hindes Road, Harrow, to report that he had been sexually abused by Carter while a pupil there in the Seventies.

Carter was arrested in May last year and charged with indecent assault and having sex with children. He pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault. The judge ordered the remaining 12 counts to remain on file.

Following Carter’s guilty plea a further three victims came forward alleging they were also abused by him while they attended the school in the Seventies. After an investigation into these allegations Carter was charged with nine counts of indecent assault between 1975 and 1977.

Detective Constable Rachel Snow, from the Metropolitan Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Team, said she was urging other people who were abused by Carter to come forward.

She said: “The abuse that Carter subjected these boys to has had devastating consequences.

“Carter is an unrepentant paedophile who preyed on any vulnerable child that came in contact with him. He had a particular preference for young boys.

“There are undoubtedly other victims of Carter’s who have not yet come forward.”