Edmund Clements
Convicted paedophile Edmund K C Clements taught Geography, History and boys’ Games at Nevill Holt between September 1972 and October 1988. He also ran a gun club, despite not holding a firearms license. He physically, sexually and psychologically abused dozens of boys between the ages of 7 and 13 over a 16 year period.
Edmund Clements – history of a career paedophile teacher
Edmund Clements at Crabbet Park School, Worth, Crawley
Paedophile Edmund Clement’s first teaching position was a live-in post teaching Geography and boys’ games at Crabbet Park School in Worth, Crawley which was an isolated rural country house boarding school for 8-13 year old boys. It is believed he started at Crabbet Park in September 1961. It is believed the school had closed by the end of 1962, due to the construction of the M23 motorway, and merged with another local boarding school where the majority of the remaining pupils and teachers, including Clements, transfered to by 1963.
Edmund Clements at Keble Prep School
From 1966-1968 Clements worked at Keble Prep School in Winchmore Hill, London, a boarding school for boys aged 8-13. It is highly likely Clements abused boys at this school. There have been a number of allegations of historic child sexual abuse relating to this school, including the conviction in 2018 of former Deputy Head Peter Wells, who taught at Keble Court at the same time as Edmund Clements. The court heard that Peter Wells made a boy “urinate in a conical flask for his sick pleasure“, and abused boys during wrestling sessions and athletics sessions where he insisted boys wear only shorts, and not tracksuits, without underwear.
Clements was given a reference by headmistress Sylvia Mary Swinburne MBE in 1968. Allegations have been made that complaints were made about teachers at Keble Prep but no action was taken.
Edmund Clements at Ashdown House School in Forest Row, East Sussex
In September 1968, Clements started working at Ashdown House in Forest Row, East Sussex. Clements taught Geography and games. According to former pupils at Ashdown, he was “particularly unpleasant“.
According to a source, Clements was a prolific child abuser throughout most of his time at Ashdown. However, in April 1970, a CID guard was placed at the school 24 hours a day due to a threat to kidnap Viscount Linley, who was a pupil at the time. According to the same source, Clements became enormously frustrated and his behaviour more brazen, something, this source believes contributed to Clement’s particularly aggressive abuse from 1971 onwards, after Viscount Linley and his security guard had left the school.
In April 1972 Clements married a newly qualified teacher ten years his junior, who was a colleague in her first year of teaching at Ashdown House.
By June 1972, Clements had been “asked to leave” by headmaster and child abuser Billy Williamson after an incident was reported by both pupils and a parent. We understand from a source that for a number of pupils to have the courage to collectively report the same incident to Billy Williamson in 1972 would have been unprecedented at the time, illustrating the outrage and seriousness of the incident.
Ashdown House and several teachers were investigated for multiple allegations of child sexual abuse in the 1960s and 1970s. Ashdown House was sold by the Cothill Trust in 2021 to a housing developer.
The culture of abuse at Ashdown House has been documented in books and TV documentaries by Alex Renton, who was a pupil during the period Clements abused boys at Ashdown.
Edmund Clements moves to Nevill Holt
Clements was appointed at the age of 33 by headmaster David Phillips to a Geography teaching post at Nevill Holt starting in September 1972.
We understand Clements chose Nevill Holt because a number of his victims at Ashdown House were now at Uppingham School, which was near to Nevill Holt. Clements secured his new job just weeks after getting married in Sussex and shortly after being given asked to leave by his Ashdown House headmaster and employer Billy Williamson who provided Clements with a glowing reference. Clements’s wife was also appointed to a teaching position at Nevill Holt. Clements accepted an offer to live in a farmhouse on the Nevill Holt Estate site, near the school athletics field, in lieu of three boarding duties per week which included supervising boys’ showers and dormitories during weekdays and every other Sunday.
By 1985, Clement’s wife had left her job at the school and moved back to Sussex. She later divorced him.
According to survivors, Clements physically abused boys all over the school site, and sexually abused boys in the kitchen and bedroom of his staff accomodation house on the school site; on the gun range opposite the French room; in the swimming pool boys’ changing room where Clements had inexplicably been allowed to install a table tennis table – giving him an excuse to walk into the changing room at any time; in an equipment shed next the athletics field (where a used condom was found in 1987); in the caravan on the athletics field; in the North Cottage library; in the priest hole toilet accessed from the Adams library; in the HG room in the stable block, opposite the music room; and at an offsite location in a nearby town that we cannot currently name for legal reasons.
After a 16-year reign of terror at Nevill Holt, Clements was given a reference by headmaster David Phillips (in May 1988) to secure a job teaching at Farlington School in Sussex that started in January 1989, when Clements was 49. This was now (at the very least) the third school within a 5-mile radius of Crawley in Sussex which had employed Edmund Clements, the others being Ashdown House in Forest Hill and Crabbet Park in Worth.
It is notable that despite complaints made by parents, relatives of pupils, and a music teacher regarding Clements’ conduct during his time teaching at Nevill Holt, he was not only given a glowing reference by David Philips but allowed to remain living alone in his large rent free 4 bedroom staff accommodation (a farmhouse opposite the athletics field) for 4 months after his contract at Nevill Holt had ended in July 1988.
David Phillips even re-employed him to fill in as a Religious Studies teacher for Peter Copas for two weeks at the beginning of the Michaelmas term in 1988, when Peter Copas took time off to arrange the funeral of his father in Norfolk in September 1988.
Edmund Clements – Farlington School, West Sussex
Edmund Clements was appointed at Farlington School by headteacher Mrs Patricia Metham, who later become the Headteacher of The Regent’s School in Thailand, Roedean College in Brighton, worked for Ofsted and rose to become a lead HMI government schools’ chief inspector. She is currently a Safeguarding Governor for Swale Academies Trust.
Clements taught Geography at Farlington School in Horsham, West Sussex, from January 1989 until September 1997 when he was suspended and then dismissed by headteacher Mrs Trina Mawer due to his arrest by Leicestershire Police, which led to his subsequence conviction in February 1998.
It is not yet known if Clements continued to abuse children between 1989 and 1998 when he was aged 49-59. Clements was permanently barred from teaching (added to List 99) in 1999.
Prolific, Sadistic and Perverted Paedophile Career
It is believed Edmund Clements worked as a teacher at schools for an uninterrupted period between September 1961 and September 1997, although he may also have worked with children in other capacities between 1959 and 1961.
By the late 1970s, barely 15 years into his career, Clements had bragged to one of his victims that he had had over 70 boys during his teaching profession. If that claim is to be believed, then Edmund Clements is likely to be one of the most menacing, evil, sadistic and fixated paedophiles in history, with many hundreds of victims.
In total, Edmund Clements worked with children for at least 37 years. But, to date, he has only been prosecuted for a very small percentage of his crimes committed over a 16-year period at Nevill Holt, entirely due to the hugely brave efforts of those survivors who came forward.
Please speak out about Edmund Clements
If you were a victim of Edmund Clements at Crabbet Park Prep, Keble Prep, Ashdown House, Nevill Holt or Farlington School – or any other location – please consider reporting the matter to the police and consulting a solicitor.
Edmund Clements – the evidence and testimony
From The Birmingham Post June 23rd, 1998
A former preparatory school teacher who subjected six schoolboys in his care to a catalogue of “degrading and perverted” sexual abuse was yesterday jailed for 10 years.
Edmund Clements (59) abused the boys, then aged between eight and 12, from 1974 to 1989, Leicester Crown Court was told.
The abuse took place while he was a geography master at the Nevill Holt Prep School, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter De Mille told Clements, a married man, of Hove, Sussex, that he had committed a “gross breach of trust” and selected at least two of his victims because they were particularly vulnerable.
The judge added that Clements, who admitted 33 sex offences against the six boys, had subjected his victims to “what any right-minded person would regard as degrading and perverted behaviour”.
Mr John Burgess, prosecuting, said the defendant – who admitted 20 indecent assaults, four counts of attempted buggery and nine indecency offences – taught at the pounds 10,000-a-year school from 1972 until 1984.
The prosecutor told the court the indictment reflected a 10-year reign of sexual abuse of “small boys” which was only unmasked after a complaint to police from one victim, now 33, in January this year.
The victim, in common with some of the other abused boys, was subjected to indecency when aged just eight after Clements bought him sweets and chocolate.
After each episode of abuse, including oral sex and masturbation, the teacher told the boy they had a “divine pact” and should tell no one.
The first victim was also urged to perform indecent acts with a second pupil and on one occasion Clements even drank the boys’ urine from a mug while he played with himself, the court was told.
Another victim – described in court as “frail, dyslexic and particularly vulnerable” – said the abuse started when he was “singled out for extra geography tuition”.
Mr Burgess said: “That boy recalled being abused by Clements at his ex-wife’s home. The victim recalls the defendant saying the word `excellent’ during this and he says to this day the word `excellent’ haunts him.”
The court was told the boy kept quiet through fear, despite being abused once or twice a week over a three-year period.
Judge De Mille imposed a 10-year jail term on each count of attempted buggery, an eight-year term on each count of indecent assault and 12 months for each charge of indecency with a child, all the sentences to run concurrently.
The judge told the defendant, who was working at Farlington School a girls’ boarding school in Horsham, Sussex, until his arrest earlier this year, that he had committed “a gross breach of trust by a teacher”.
He added: “You appear to have selected at least two of your victims because they were particularly vulnerable.
“You then subjected them to what any right-minded person would regard as degrading and perverted behaviour and that is behaviour which still haunts at least some of your victims all these years later.”
Mr David Barker QC, defending, told the court that his client had found religion and recognised that what he did was “utterly wrong”.
Mr Peter Copas, aged 53, the former deputy headmaster of Nevill Holt school, was found dead in February by police who went there to interview him.
Chief Inspector Michael Grant, of Leicestershire Police, refused to comment on whether the death of Mr Copas was linked to the Clements investigation, pending an inquest.
Evidence: Edmund Clements at Ashdown House
Who were the two masters on the very end left side of photo? Remember the one in glasses being particularly unpleasant.
50+ years later I instantly recognise the face of that evil little shit from my Ashdown days.
Think the one with glasses was Clement.
Evidence: Edmund Clements at Nevill Holt
Clements as a short-tempered atheist (who conveniently “found God” after his arrest) who was a b*****d to the kids
As for Clemants why only ten years the sick bastard!!
I remember boys getting seven bells knocked out of them in geography lessons, thrown down staircases etc on one occasion a boy in the year above me got a standing ovation after Clements had left the room having knocked him senseless but not made him cry !
I was there 74-77 remember Clements was bad tempered and shifty in extreme
Clements was a violent and spiteful man, full stop. I was lucky not to be on the end of his temper but I remember plenty who were. He would regularly reduce classmates to tears and would do the same at night time when doing the dorm rounds with an equally mean spirited and vindictive matron called Miss Macdonald (remember her..?). Sadly, it didn’t surprise me at all when he was later outed as a paedophile (one of the boys he abused was in my year and the police rang me to ask if I could provide corroborating evidence).
Clements however, was a brutal and sadistic individual. I, it seems, had a very narrow escape, being invited to his house (while his wife was out – whatever became of her?) to ‘learn how to body-build’.
Luckily I was not a victim but I remember him taking rugby and his methods were very much sexualised on the field and was very blatant. I hated him taking rugby.
When the police began investigating that nasty shit Clements they turned up a whole load of other stuff. In fact, they found a school with a culture of turning a blind eye to abuse.
As for Clements, an evil man with a sadistic streak that ran to how he wanted to torture women. He was a systematic, violent, sex abuser who inflicted considerable pain on me whilst he violated me. He sexually abused a significant number of pupils. Outside of his sex abuse ‘extra tuition’ classes he had a bad temper. I remember him slapping one boy so hard across the face he nearly knocked him out. If I ever bump into him in Eastbourne I won’t wish him a good day.
I think I would have been too young to understand much about the types of abuse that happened but I was terrified by Clements and recall being hit by the black board rubber or being hauled out infront of a class and whacked across my rump or the backs or my legs – not great in the summer term with shorts on.
I started in 78 and remember my first roll call taken by Clements. He picked up one of the older boys and threw him over the top of piano. Welcome to Nevill Holt!
The old footbath – jeeesus – and Clements being the only teacher to pull up a chair and watch us shower [shiver] (too young at the time to think it was strange)
Clements deserved everything he got – in fact he deserved a lot more!!
No, we did not have a happy childhood. It was horrible. My strongest memory has always been the sound of the dormitories, the first night of term — the sound of little boys crying for their mothers has stayed with me my whole life.
Abuses that I experienced, not solely those of Clements’, included being lifted up bodily and thrown across a grand piano, being dragged around a rugby field by my hair, and being threatened with a golf club. And that was just my experience.
I doubt the falling rolls had so much to do with Clemo’s sexual abuse. More likely that a new generation looked upon their seven-year-old children, and recoiled in horror at the prospect of subjecting them to such an institution.
Clements should never have been allowed near children. That volcanic temper belied a sick piece of shit. If anyone remembers the beer bottles in his class room.. full of boy’s piss. He used to drink it during class and make his victims drink it. They found him in an all girls school down south.
It occurred to me that his apparently irrational continued employment could only really suggest he had something on Philips. Something that would cost him the school.. possibly even his own behaviour knowing it would kill the place. It just makes no sense that David kept him on.
I will never forget him pulling ***** ****** backwards at lunch causing everyone to fall off the bench. At all of 12 ***** was built like a tank. He stood up calmly and took Clements by the throat then pinned him against the wall to everyone’s utter astonishment. The Philips’s could but watch. He told Clements so everyone could hear. ‘Don’t ever touch me again do you understand?’
Like all bullies Clements shat himself. It was a beautiful moment.
David knew about his temper issue. I wondered if he hadn’t threatened him physically. David’s stammer came from his dad’s bullying after all.. Clements had to have something on him.
Clements on the other hand was/is a despicable cunt & deserves everything he gets. I can only hope he remains tortured by what he has done.
Unfortunately apart from a few good memories I found nh to be quite a cruel & Victorian way to bring up the very young.
I did hear that mr. Clements became a born-again Christian whatever that means and I also heard he had completely lost his marbles. Mr. Clemens was just not a pedophile it would seem he was a psychotic pedophile which must have scared the s*** out of his victims. I am pretty sure some of his victims was silent because they really feared for their Life. What I really can’t get over is how it was kept secret for soo long in such a small enviroment and did mr. Clements wife know anything
Deaso warned Clements’s wife that he would destroy her. Everybody hated him.. From jack hollingsworth to mrs falks via deaso.. But there is no question he and copas were in cahoots because ******* was abused by copas but knew about clements because he told me about the piss drinking with clements.
Born again or not he should be shot. Psycho’s don’t feel remorse.. They aren’t wired that way. He would offend again in a trice given the chance.
I was at NH from 79-82 and remember exactly the same details as the chap who posted in October 2012. Miss MacRonald insisting on being called ‘Sir’! It is truly shocking to read the few posts which reveal Peter Copas’ dark side. Like the contributor mentioned above (we must have known one another), I was invited – and went – to Clements’ house, while his wife was out, to learn how to body-build. He gave me challenges in dorm to do press-ups, and awarded me one of those hand clenching exercise gadgets for doing 40. I’ve chucked it away now. He was a real moster. He’d bend your fingers back do far to inspect nails that some boys would cry. A single spec of mud could result in being dragged to the sinks and having your hands scrubbed raw with those rock hard brushes.
I was one of those boys, not sexually abused but routinely physically abused, primarily by Mr Clements, for whom I have no sympathy whatever, but also by others.
No, we did not have a happy childhood. It was horrible. My strongest memory has always been the sound of the dormitories, the first night of term — the sound of little boys crying for their mothers has stayed with me my whole life.
Abuses that I experienced, not solely those of Clements’, included being lifted up bodily and thrown across a grand piano, being dragged around a rugby field by my hair, and being threatened with a golf club. And that was just my experience.
I was there from 76-80 and was abused by Clements. I am sure there are many others like me who have not been part of a formal investigation. My abiding memories of the school though are of freezing temperatures (it was a blessing that there was a fire in the Great Hall, which also served to help melt our air gun pellets as well as warm our chilblain-ed toes), a beautiful building (was the ceiling in one of the dorms really by Robert Adam?), and good drama (remember the Hamlet in the Great Hall?).
I got too much attention from both copas and clement, but both were vastly different.clement was a monster.sadistic, violent brutal individual.
Anyway, everything written about Clements above is right. A really nasty sadistic piece of work. As he made me masturbate him over pornographic hard core images (I was 11 and 12 at the time) he would play out his sadistic fantasies of how he wanted to torture women. He boasted to me that he had had over 70 boys during his teaching profession and he was glad that girls were about to come to the school because he wanted to see them naked.
Three other things I recall from the above.
One was when he leathered his two Doberman dogs with his dog walking chain in the warren. We all just stopped and stared as the dogs were yelping in pain. He was absolutely belting them with the chain.
Peter Copas
Peter Rodney Copas taught English, Drama and Rugby at Nevill Holt between 1969 and 1998. At the time of his suicide, the CPS had decided that there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge him.
A number of victims had provided detailed statements to the police about his paedophile activity and many more came forward after his death. These statements detail how he sexually abused boys aged between 7 and 13 over a 20-year period.
From The Birmingham Post October 1st, 1998
The deputy headmaster of a public school who fled and was later found hanged from a tree after police arrived to arrest him in connection with indecency allegations committed suicide, an inquest decided yesterday.
Leicester and South Leicestershire Coroner Mr Martin Symington recorded the verdict after hearing that Mr Peter Copas, aged 53, did “a runner” after being told police wanted to see him.
Mr Copas, deputy head of the Nevill Holt School near Market Harborough, Leicestershire, was later found hanged in a nearby wood with a rope which was tied with a complex knot.
Leicestershire Police said at the time that officers had gone to the school to arrest Mr Copas in connection with indecency allegations.
The hearing was told that a Police Complaints Authority inquiry into the circumstances of Mr Copas’s death had since said it was satisfied with police actions.
Detective Sergeant Neville Cook said that when he arrived at the school at about 8am on February 19 he asked a male teacher, who it later turned out was Mr Copas, for directions to the headmaster’s house.
The man directed him, smiled and asked him if he was a police officer, Det Sgt Cook said.
He said he told headmaster Mr Ian Mackenzie that officers were there to arrest Mr Copas on “serious allegations”.
Mr Mackenzie volunteered to fetch Mr Copas from the dining room, where he was supervising breakfast.
Mr Mackenzie told the court he saw Mr Copas sitting alone at the top table drinking tea with a green carrier bag on the table next to him.
“I asked him to come with me because the police wanted to talk to us. He just sat there,” Mr Mackenzie told the hearing.
He left the room, expecting Mr Copas to follow, then turned round to see that the deputy head had left by another door.
Mr Mackenzie then rang the police officers and told them Mr Copas had “done a runner” and a full search of the grounds was launched.
A police dog handler found the body of Mr Copas hanging from a tree above a ditch about half-a-mile from the school.
Mr Mackenzie said his deputy head had worked at the school for 28 years and was a well respected teacher whom he trusted implicitly.
Pathologist Dr Roger Carey said Mr Copas’s body was hanging by a complex knot. The rope took his full weight and he would have died “rapidly”.
The Coroner said it was clear that Mr Copas had “appreciated the position he was in when the police wanted to see him and what was likely to happen thereafter”.
Former Nevill Holt teacher Edmund Clements (59) was jailed for 10 years at Leicester Crown Court in June this year after pleading guilty to 33 sex offences involving six boys aged 8-12 between 1974 and 1984.
According to testimony from survivors on Facebook and Blogger, Peter Copas abused boys in their beds in dormitories, in his private bedroom that was directly opposite two of the boys’ dormitories (Venetians and Florentines), in a bathroom opposite one of these dormitories, in the ‘sick bay’ above the boy’s changing rooms, in his cottage in Medbourne village, in a caravan on the athletics field, on residential trips to youth hostels on weekends in Norfolk, Herefordshire and Derbyshire, during “extra exeats”, during Sunday “free walk” time, during 1-1 rehearsals for Sunday service readings in the school chapel, during 1-1 drama rehearsals testing children on their lines, and during annual residential hockey festivals held at Greshams School, Norfolk over the Easter holidays.
Witnesses have also said that Peter Copas would often use the large boy’s shower in the ‘wet changers’ changing room before the matron woke the boys each morning with a bell. This later developed into using the boy’s shower to expose himself as part of an early morning ‘cross country’ ritual that included a hand-picked selection of boys.
Please speak out about Peter Copas
If you were a victim of Peter Copas at Nevill Holt, on outward bounds expeditions, on sports tours held at Greshams School – or any other location – please consider reporting the matter to the police and consulting a solicitor.
Evidence: Peter Copas at Nevill Holt
As far as Copas is concerned – I was in Venetians dorm (fire escape practice out of the window!) One night I remember Griz arriving late at night and going into his room opposite. He then quietly walked into our dorm and checked to see if anyone was awake (I was awake but pretended to be asleep). He walked over to the other side of the dorm (backing on to Florentine dorm) and spent sometime at one of the boys bed then left for his room. I remember distinctly the quiet sobbing that came from that bed for sometime after. I feel like a complete coward even now for not having said anything.
Copas cheated those he abused out of justice and closure by his cowardly death. Please don’t deny his guilt, it insults those few who had their innocence stolen.
Copas – I don’t have the same rosy memories as others as he raped me. I’d also condemn anyone who taught there during that period since in a school that size they must have known what was going on.
I feel I have to put on record what happened to me.
I was at NH from 1968 to 1975. Like ****** ****** I spent a lot of time with Copas and I liked him a lot.
On a walking holiday when sharing a dorm with him in bunk beds, in the middle of the night he asked me to get into his bed. I made an excuse that I would not be able to because of the YHA bed sheets.
That was that for a while but I felt horrible and betrayed.
The following term he started putting me under pressure to come to his room and masturbate together. I made some excuse but he put me under pressure over the course of a few days.
After a few days Deas took me to one side and told me that he was aware of what had happened, that Copas felt terrible about it and it would not happen again. He also told me not to tell a soul not until I was on my death bed. I did not tell anyone until I met my wife – some 13 years later.
When Copas hung himself the police came to see me and they were already aware of what had happened. They also told me that Phillips also knew. They were given my name by a contemporary so there was at least one other person who knew about this.
So those are the facts. Deas and Phillips covered this up for years. They knew that Copas was a paedophile but did nothing. He did not abuse me but given that he committed suicide it is hard to believe he did not abuse others.
As others have commented he was a very nice guy and inspirational is correct. I even saw him for several years after leaving NH.
I clearly remember the day the police came and Mr Copas ran out of breakfast and when they found his body hung in the nearby forest.
When the police were making their enquiries about Clements they turned up real, yes real, evidence against Copas. I remember a friend at the school describing Copas as queer as a coot and I was surprised but thought there must have been some reason for the comment. That boy was taken down to Copas’s place in the village to ‘decorate’ for him. Anyway, the coppers found Copas to be a pedophile, hence why he shot out the breakfast and hung himself. Busted.
I worry in hindsight when I remember him taking a box or Roses chocolates I had been sent for my birthday from me but then allowing me to go to his room to take one whenever I wanted one….I always managed to go when he was out
Copas abused boys too. He ran away and hung hinself when the cops came for him. Destroyed lives and led to the suicides of a smashing head boy and another dear friend of mine. Clements is an evil shit. I saw Deaso a few tines before he died and he was very upset about Copas but he hated Clements. We will never know just how many were hurt by them but I have good reason to suspect they acted in tandem to a degree. Horrible thing to taint what were happy memories of the school.
The first was the head boy setting fire to himself and the second I can’t say.
Deaso was a legend. I loved that man. Copas pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. If he had known what Clements was doing he would have beaten the shit out of him..
As for Copas.. Gris was his best friend.. it was a total shock. He expressed terrible remorse for not knowing or being able to act. They socialised and travelled together.. it was a total surprise save for he knew that Copas was not heterosexually active.
The school had been warned that Copas presented a risk. Nobody took it seriously.
Copas abused boys too and yes they did accuse him. The head boy he got to while I was there, dear xxxxx’s last words were ‘Copas, Copas. ‘..as he lay in hospital dying from the burns having set light to himself because the bastard abused him. Copas hung himself when the police came for him, Deaso and others told me. He didn’t hang himself just because he knew. He couldn’t face jail so he topped himself. Another friend never got over it and overdosed.
He groomed certain boys.. picked out which ones he thought wouldn’t tell.
I’m not sure why, on catching me talking after lights-out, he found it necessary to order me to lean over the side of the cast-iron Bath in his bathroom next to Venetians and tell me to drop my pyjamas so he could beat me with his gym shoe (nicknamed The Jemima) on my bare backside – maybe he thought it’d be more character-building.
I got too much attention from both copas and clement, but both were vastly different.clement was a monster.sadistic, violent brutal individual.copas was the opposite.compassion,kind and warm.But unfortunately both attention was inappropriate although helped me to deal with domes of my ghosts while he was dealing with some of his.
When the police were gathering evidence against Clements, they turned up evidence on Copas. Irrefutable evidence. That’s why they went to the school to confront him with it. Which is why he hung himself.
Robin Peverett
Convicted paedophile Robin David Peverett taught English, Latin and Drama at Nevill Holt between September 1962 and April 1964. He led the cub scouts and organised camping on the warren. He also ran the school library.
Robin Peverett was the second graduate appointed from St Edmund Hall, Oxford, after M G Jordan in September 1953. He lived on-site, in Buffalo Lodge, opposite the Warren.
He replaced the English teacher, Mr Roger Ridings, who left in July 1962.
Robin David Peverett’s Suspicious CV
- Robin David Peverett was educated at Eastbourne College
and went on to St Edmund Hall, Oxford in September 1954. (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1954/55, page 90)
At St Edmund Hall he was involved in drama and putting on performances of plays. - He received a 3rd Class degree in Modern History from St Edmund Hall, Oxford (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1956/57), awarded in absence on 1st May 1957. (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1957/58, page 119)
- He was married in Sweden in August 1957.
His first teaching post: “September 1957 R.D Peverett is teaching at Eastbourne College Preparatory School” (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1956/57, page 29)
An MA from St Edmund Hall, Oxford was awarded on 29 July 1961 - September 1961: “R Peverett is now in charge of a school at the Pestalozzi Village” (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1960-61, p34) He taught for less than a full academic year at the Pestalozzi Village and the reasons for his departure are unclear. In fact, further research, including an article in the Observer dated Sunday, October 23rd 1960 reveals that Eric Bourne ran the school and Peverett was an ‘ex-classics teacher’ who ‘lived in a prefab’ with his wife. Also, this site states Peverett was a ‘houseparent and was not in charge of a school. Interestingly, no mention is made of Robin Peverett on a very active and detailed Facebook group about the history of the Pestalozzi Village between 1958 and 1966.
- September 1962 – “R D Peverett has been appointed assistant master at Nevill Holt School, Market Harborough.” (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1961-62, p32). Did Peverett lie on his CV?
- In April 1964, R Peverett was appointed to teach English and Latin at Dulwich College Preparatory School. See source.
- September 1968 – “R D Peverett has been appointed Headmaster of Dulwich College Preparatory School, Cranbrook, from 1970, and Deputy Headmaster until then.” (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1967/68, page 38)
- September 1974 – “R D Peverett is a governor of Wootonley House School, Canterbury, and is on the Training Committee of the Inc. Assoc. of Prep. Schools and on the council administering comprehensive schooling in the Cranbrook area”. (St Edmund Hall Magazine 1974-75, page 22)
His eventual replacement as English and Drama teacher at Nevil Holt was Peter Rodney Copas. David Phillips took on his Latin teaching.
Robin Peverett was given a glowing reference by Nevill Holt headmaster and owner Frederick Serille Phillips which allowed him to continue his career at Dulwich College Preparatory School as a deputy headmaster, and later headmaster.
Also I clearly recall Robin Peverett – whose previous role had been in the Pestalozzi Children’s Village – who I believe came to replace Mr Ridings and lived in a gatehouse. He hugely impressed us by bringing his collection of ancient firearms into class. He subsequently got into huge trouble at Dulwich Prep resulting in a (miraculously) suspended sentence. Interestingly he has airbrushed his NH employment from his cv – he has his own Wikipedia entry, lucky man.
Paedophile Robin Peverett
Robin Pevertt pleaded guilty and was convicted of indecently assaulting seven children – one boy and six girls, aged 10-13, in the 1960s and 1970s. Dulwich College Preparatory School also admitted further instances of abuse between 1965 and 1978 in an out-of-court settlement in 2002. Peverett abused children as part of punishments “meted out to pupils in Latin lessons, fencing practice, drama productions and a school trip to stay on narrowboats on the Norfolk Broads.” At his trial, the court heard: “When pupils had misbehaved or had problems with their spelling Peverett would spank and rub his hands over their bare bottoms. A boy who was 12 at the time said he was indecently assaulted by Peverett as he tested him on his lines for a school production of Twelfth Night.”
Robin Peverett later became the chairman of IAPS in 1985 (Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools) the organisation by which most, if not, all 3-13 boarding preparatory schools were governed and inspected. This oversight included safeguarding, references and professional misconduct referrals to “List 99“.
When Robin Peverett retired from teaching in 1990, he was elevated within the IAPS to the position of Director of Education – a position that included responsibility for new teacher induction, safeguarding, referrals to List 99, LEAs and DFE, child protection policy formulation and implementation and school inspections. He also became an Ofsted inspector and continued as Director of Education of IAPS until 1995.
Link to source and Link to source
Robin Peverett’s position as head of IAPS meant that he was ultimately responsible for investigating any complaints about paedophiles operating at Nevill Holt between 1985 and 1995; and those working before and after 1985 who complaints had been made against. During his 1985 to 1995 tenure, Robin Peverett was in a position to protect paedophiles and stymie any investigation into child abuse allegations in all IAPS schools, and evidence provided to the IICSA enquiry demonstrated that he did just that on several occasions.
One teacher who reported paedophile allegations to the IAPS in 1985 claimed he was “warned off and threatened by the then chairman of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (Robin Peverett), and the matter was not pursued.” Link to source
The IICSA enquiry heard that Robin Peverett used his position as chairman of IAPS to hush up allegations of abuse at a number of IAPS schools, including the activities of convicted paedophile Robin Lindsay, who abused boys at Sherborne Prep School between 1953 and 1998.
Link to source and Link to source and Link to source and Link to source
At his trial in 2000, in which he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing several underage children in his care, Robin Peverett was represented by barrister Geoffrey Cox QC. In defending paedophile Peverett who pleaded guilty, The Daily Record newspaper and Guido Fawkes reported Geoffrey Cox as defending Robin Peverett with these words:
What’s a little buttock fondling after all? It was all such a long time ago…
Geoffrey Cox is currently the Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon and served as Attorney General between 2018 and 2020 under prime ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Do you think it is acceptable for a senior UK Conservative politician and former Attorney General to defend and minimise a predatory paedophile’s behaviour as “a little buttock fondling”?
Robin Peverett’s OBE was rescinded in December 2000.
New life as Robin Porecky
Since 2009 Robin Peverett has been living and writing under the pseudonym Robin Porecky. (Porecky being the stolen maiden name of his maternal grandmother.) His vanity-published stories include “Come Into My Arms”, about an abused young Kurdish girl tied to a stake and shot. Various literary figures have apparently reviewed ‘Robin Porecky’ titles, according to claims on Robin Porecky’s author profile, including Liz Jensen, author of ‘The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, Catholic Herald writer Alexander Lucie-Smith, writing for ‘The Tablet’, BBC radio producer Piers Plowright, Triple Prix Italia winner and Radio 4’s Saturday Review critic, Bernard Krichefski, TV Drama Producer, and Brendan Walsh, Literary Editor ‘The Tablet’.
Note: It is unclear if any of these alleged reviews are genuine or if the alleged reviewers are aware of Robin Porecky’s background. It is unclear whether vanity publisher Austin Maccauley is aware of Robin Porecky’s past. Perhaps Austin Maccauley should reconsider its position with regard to promoting a convicted paedophile’s book about an abused young Kurdish girl tied to a stake and shot.
(Edit – June 2023 – we contacted all five of the alleged reviewers listed by ‘Robin Porecky’. Four replied to indicate that they had provided no such review. One explained: “This is complete bullshit. I’ve never even seen the book!” We also contacted Austin Maccauley, who removed the author’s profile from their website and removed his books from sale. )
Here is an article from a magazine in Sweden about Robert Porecky, which includes a photo, and details of his biography including getting married in Sweden, retiring in 1990 and obtaining Swedish citizenship.
Sweden does not extradite its citizens to the UK.
Link to source (page 58) and Link to source (page 32) and Link to source.
Peverett was in charge of the pervert house
The man in charge of all preparatory school teacher induction, teacher misconduct, and prep boarding school safeguarding in England, Scotland and Wales during the 1980s and 1990s had unexplained gaps in his employment history, lies on his CV, and later changed his name and fled to a country with no UK extradition treaty after a conviction for child sexual abuse.
Robin Peverett is directly responsible for hundreds of paedophile teachers being allowed to continue unchecked to abuse, rape and ruin the lives of thousands of children.
Please speak out about Robin Peverett / Robin Porecky
If you were a victim of Robin Peverett / Robin Porecky at Eastbourne College, Sussex, St Edmund Hall, Oxford, the Pestalozzi Village school, Nevill Holt, Dulwich College Preparatory School, Wootonley House School, Canterbury, in Sweden – or any other location – or if you were a teacher or safeguarding lead who was intimidated or threatened by Robin Peverett when he was in charge of IAPS, please consider reporting the matter to the police and consulting a solicitor.
Bernard Dragescu
Mr Dragescu taught French at Nevill Holt from the autumn of 1971 until the summer of 1975. He was given a glowing reference by headmaster David Phillips and secured a senior position teaching at Winchester House, near Brackley. Allegations about Bernard Dragescu have been posted online and a number of victims claim to have contacted the police.
Please speak out about Bernard Dragescu
If you were a victim of Bernard Dragescu at Nevill Holt or Winchester House, Brackley – or any other location – please consider reporting the matter to the police and consulting a solicitor.
Bernard Dragescu at Nevill Holt: Evidence
Dragescue, well everyone knew he was groping
I remember the day Drageascu was busted for fondling boys in the modelling room and he was crying at the school gates. So Philips gave him a good reference to go and work in another nearby prep school. Unbelievable really when you think about it, but that was Philips and that was the culture.
It was a bastard of a place. Phillips was a real piece of work, and that French bastard Draggy abused me for years.
What happened to dragescu? He was involved in all this but we don’t hear anything
Drag was the one I was certain was a molester. Always had boys sitting on his lap and shit. Nasty man. Liked his dog but not him. Guess he was not there as long so was able to slip away.
Leslie Moorhouse
Leslie Moorhouse worked as a music teacher at Nevill Holt from the 1960s until the early 1970s.
He later volunteered at Bramhope’s National Children’s Home at Hilton Grange in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hilton Grange was a home for orphaned children and the ‘educationally sub-normal’. In 2011, police investigated the home regarding historical child sexual abuse, and a “house-parent” working there, John Laister, was sentenced to 14 years for child sexual abuse that took place between 1970 and 1978.
Mr Moorhouse and his treats for boys – CDMs given out to the quieter, prettier ones…
(CDM is a Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate bar)
The oily Mr Moorhouse (mentioned by someone earlier) who offered me 10 shillings to come round to his thatched cottage in the grounds for tea. Fortunately didn’t go.
Moorhouse – an old version of Billy Bunter but not funny. I was not a musician (thank goodness) Beatles and Stones were new and great! But in hindsight you realise he was bent
Ah – yes, that house – fortunately and wisely never did accept puffy-fingered music/choirmaster Mr Moorhouse’s offer of ten shillings to go round for tea!
One of his catch phrases delivered with menace, clenched fists and crescendo during assembly in the (old) Library was, ” …and there are certain boys, or should I say OIKS in this school who deserve A DAMN GOOD THRASHING!!!!!!!
I don’t remember him being so violent in his language, but he used to be emotionally cruel. And we’d never know from day to day when he was going to be in a “bate”.
Eric Norman Wraight
Eric Norman Wraight was a prolific career paedophile who began his teaching career at Breaside Preparatory School, aged 22, where he lived over the road with his parents who were also teachers at the school. He stayed there until April 1955 when he moved to St. George’s College, Quilmes, a boys’ boarding school with a preparatory department in Argentina. We understand he abused several boys there and was put on a ship back to Southampton in December 1957. In September 1958 he joined Purton Stoke Preparatory School in Barton Court, Kintbury, Berkshire. It appears he was one of several paedophiles working at this school in the 1950s and 1960s. We understand Wraight abused several pupils during his time at this school between 1958 and 1965 and was eventually asked to leave. In September 1965, having received a reference from Purton Stoke, now aged 41, he accepted a position from Fred Phillips at Nevill Holt to teach French and Geography. He stayed here until around the end of 1969 when he vanished from the school under mysterious circumstances. He died shortly thereafter in Sidcup on 5th February 1970, aged 45. There have been multiple reports of Wraight abusing boys at Nevill Holt with specific allegations of fondling, oral sex, digital penetration and sodomy.
Or accept the CDM’s also always on favour offer to prettier boys from Eric Wraight, (remember invitations to his private little Model Aircraft club?!) but have always felt for those of my era who did accept from either of them and what they went through.
(CDM is a Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate bar)
Wraight was a vicious psychotic whose taste for small boys was legendary. I remember the bell hurling incident to this day and also recall him punching holes in the oak panels that lined the passageways.
Finally he abused a friend of mine. We reported it to DCSP and Mr Wright disappeared from school. I wouldn’t be surprised if his ‘death’ was made up to appease us.
Then you have the two masters (both of who should have been locked up) Wraight and Perry
In the background left the first adult standing holding the sheet of paper is the dreaded Eric Wraight, in his usual brown suit and orange tan shoes.
I entirely concur with you regarding Mr. Wraight, I’ve often wondered over the years if I was the only boy to have a disturbing experience with him or whether there were others. Needless to say I never told anyone what happened, even my parents.
I was at NH from 1966 to 1971. What you say about Eric Wraight (“Ratty”) is absolutely true. He groomed me with CDMs and Mars Bars while working on the school newspaper that he started up. It culminated in a horrible incident where he had me sitting on his knee with his hand in my pocket. This happened in the modelling room where Ratty made his remote-controlled aeroplanes. Someone came up the wooden stairs at that point (probably Mr Lanyon going to the music room) and nothing further happened. Whoever it was who came up those stairs saved me from a lifetime of therapy!
Keith Perry
Mr Perry was a history teacher at Nevill Holt in 1964.
After leaving Nevill Holt, Keith Perry taught for 38 years as Head of History at St Paul’s School in London.
In 1986, boys in a St Paul’s boarding house found a collection of videos hidden behind a row of books in his study, where he often entertained pupils. It was always kept unlocked.
A former pupil told The Times that in Perry’s absence he and a small group of boarders watched an excerpt from one of the films. He said it showed a weeping boy, aged about 13, sitting naked on a chair. The child was instructed to perform a sex act.
Inquiries by The Times confirm the boy’s recollection of having been so disturbed by the video that he reported it to a teacher, who told the school’s senior management of the alleged discovery of “homosexual pornographic videos” in the assistant housemaster’s study.
Link to source | Link to source | Link to source
No action was taken by St Paul’s School, and Keith Perry continued to teach there until 2003.
Keith Perry, 73, was given a suspended sentence in February 2014 for downloading images of young boys. In total five teachers – so far – have been convicted as part of an organised paedophile ring operating at St Paul’s School and its prep feeder school, Colet Court.
Mr Perry. Anyone remember him? Took history, balding ginger hair and a temper. Had the unfortunate experience of him taking our class for swimming and him changing with all us young lads. We thought it hilarious when he stood there with a stonker on!
A ‘stonker‘ is a 1960s English schoolboy slang term for an erect penis.
The other master standing next to Wraight was that nutter Perry
Then you have the two masters (both of who should have been locked up) Wraight and Perry
Maurice Lanyon
Maurice Lanyon was apparently a talented singer and musician who, shortly after completing studies at Trinity College, London and Southwark Cathedral, inexplicably fled to India in 1926 aged 21 to teach as a missionary in a rural school in Bangalore. He moved back to England in 1946, to be appointed as Director of Music at Belmont, Mill Hill’s junior school. He joined Nevill Holt in 1966 and left his teaching post in 1982, although he returned to the school several times to assist Peter Copas with play productions and the chapel choir up until 1985.
Another was Maurice Lanyon. I remember him ‘cleansing’ me on his lap.
I did however find Mr Lanyon’s behaviour very odd. I used to have piano lessons with him; which I dreaded. He used to stroke my forehead and hold my leg; under the pretence that he was trying to calm me. Needless to say it stressed me beyond belief. I gave up music as soon as I could. I did not manage to leave the choir, but was at least never left alone with him. Never wanted to discuss this until I saw everyone else’s memories.
What about mr lanyon hypnotising us asleep on his large stained bladder sack whilst our parents thought they were paying for extra music not perverted gratification.
Mr Lanyon
Music teacher who was nearly as old as the school itself.. god help the boy who messed about with him… theres only one thing worse than getting caned and that is being put over an old mans knee and smacked whilst hearing and smelling the old chaps colostomy bag spashing around!!!!
Frederick Serille Phillips
The first headmaster of Nevill Holt was a con man who created an atmosphere of delusion and fear which allowed paedophiles to operate unchecked.
From Times Educational Supplement 11th May 2008
Son’s expose puts independent sector in the spotlight. Emily Clark reports
A headteacher who faked his name, age and qualifications to run a boarding school in Leicestershire for 40 years has been exposed as a fraud by his son.
Frederick Phillips cheated parents, pupils and his bank manager into believing he was a qualified French teacher and aristocrat with military honours in order to buy and run Nevill Holt preparatory school in Market Harborough. He died in 1982.
His son, Nicholas Phillips, this week exposed Phillips’s deceptions to highlight the need for greater scrutiny in the independent sector.
Mr Phillips, who is now 74 and lives in France, said: “The public ought to be aware that this sort of thing can happen. Scrutiny of public schools only started recently which means that somebody else who got into this position through wrong means, could still be in place.”
Swansea-born Frederick Phillips changed his accent and pretended he was a graduate of the Sorbonne to get a job teaching French at Nevill Holt.
He had, in fact, only attended summer school at Besancon University, France.
In 1927 he adopted the double-barrelled name Serille-Phillips and claimed he was the son of a gentleman (his father was a wheelwright) to secure a bank loan of £12,000 to buy the Grade I listed 13th-century school building.
He said he was 30, to substantiate a lie that he was a former squadron leader, secret service agent and medal-winner in the First World War. In fact, he had only just completed his military training at Uxbridge.
Mr Phillips pretended his son Nicholas had won a scholarship to Harrow, and in private he caned him excessively under the guise of discipline.
Nicholas Phillips said: “I do not think he abused his position as head but I had a very bad time. He was frustrated and wanted to advance himself in the world. The boys lacked maturity and personality because they were only expected to behave well and pass exams.”
His twin sister Charmian Woodfield recalls her father giving her the answers in advance of a scholarship entrance exam for a girls’ school in Oxford.
She said: “I have no proof but I wonder if he did this for other pupils.
There was a lack of ethics at the school…my father was very strange. He endlessly invented stories. If you appeared to be a gentleman in the 1920s people believed you without checking documents.”
Frederick Phillips handed over the headship to his eldest son David in 1968 who ran the school until 1992.
David Phillips’s behaviour and competence as a teacher and senior manager were never questioned.
However, Mr Phillips, 76, believes his brother and sister are making the accusations out of “spite and vengeance” because their father left them none of his money.
He said: “I think scratching around in the muck at this stage is dreadful.
Inspectors came to the school, there were always things which were not A1 but overall our reports were good and we sent boys to all the leading schools.”
Both David Phillips and his father were members of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools. John Morris, general secretary of the IAPS, said: “Governing bodies and associations expect people to be properly experienced. Our members undergo quite a strict scrutiny but I cannot comment on others.”
Although there is no legal obligation for private schools to recruit qualified teachers or check references, it is a requirement of most associations.
The Children’s Act of 1989, the National Care Standards Commission and the Independent School Inspection Service monitor the management of private schools.
That man should not have been allowed to go within 100 miles of any child
the old man Fred Philips was a tyrannical bully who would have been locked up today. It is very easy to see and understand how the system of control under tyrannical regimes work. North Korea, the Stasi secret police of east Germany and even the manipulative bullies like Jimmy Savile would use exactly the same psychology to instill fear into everyone around them. Phillips had a network of teachers prefects and snitches who would enable him to create a culture of fear amongst young boys. I was regularly beaten for talking after lights out. The dormitory prefect would go to bed and immediatly consult his snitch who would tell him who had been talking. (I remember who you are B****n and W****t!). I would be woken and marched down to the headmasters study to be confronted by this drunken old sadist and then beaten on the hands with a stick.
I respectfully beg to differ, ladies & gentleman – FSP was a bully and a fraud. He purported to be an aristocrat, which he wasn’t. However, despite him, most of us prospered @ Nevill Holt.
I absolutely agree that FSP was a bully and a fraud; unfortunately the Times Educational Supplement in which Nicholas Phillips details his father’s fraud is no longer accessible without paying a fee. He could, I suppose, be excused slightly on the basis that what he did was not solely for his own personal gain.
Those who knew, but covered it up
David Phillips
The headmaster of Nevill Holt school from 1968 until 1992, Phillips provided references to teachers accused of sexual abuse and failed to pass on allegations about staff received from pupils, parents and teachers to the police.
Raise a glass to those boys. May they rest in peace… and may Copas and Clements rot in hell.
Mr Phillips was a good guy but a poor judge of character. He also employed a latin teacher while I was there that turned out to be a rampant flasher.. Mr Bott.. You wonder where he found these shit bags.
There was abuse at Oakham where I went after too.. School covered it up. Fucking pedos everywhere.
I was at Nevill Holt in 1957 . David Phillips taught me cricket ,rugby and soccer very well . I liked him as a person , but found him a bit scary . His Father was a sadistical tyrant . I remember being beaten many times on the hands and the bottom .His Secretary was always in the office I believe .
Ronald Adam Deas
Ronald Adam Deas started at Nevill Holt in September 1968, having spent 6 years teaching at Maidwell Hall between 1962 and 1968 and 4 years teaching at Heatherdown Prep School, near Ascot between 1958 and 1962. Prior to his teaching career, Ron Deas was a Physical Training Instructor in the Royal Navy.
Ron Deas was was appointed as a junior teacher, games coach and PT instructor at Maidwell Hall, Northamptonshire by headmaster Oliver Wyatt in 1962. While at Maidwell Hall, one of the pupils taught by Ron Deas was the future poet Andrew Motion. Motion wrote of Maidwell’s then headmaster, and Ron Deas’ employer, Oliver Wyatt: “He beat us if we did badly at work, if we were cheeky, if we walked with our hands in our pockets, if we left the middle button on our jackets undone, if we walked on the grass by the statue standing on one leg, if we slammed doors, if we barged ahead of masters, if we swore, if we made a mess in our lockers, if we didn’t have our towels, if we had fights, if we damaged the flowers, if we hid our food…“
Ron Deas left Maidwell Hall in 1968. He was given a glowing reference by the then serial sadistic child-abuser headmaster John “Jack” Porch. John Porch was accused by Earl Spencer in 2024 of “inflicting ‘brutal beatings’ and he believed the teacher gained “sexual pleasure from the violence”. Ron Deas was Federick Phillips’ final staff appointment before retirement. Link to source 1. Link to source 2.
A significant number of ex-pupils have alleged that Ronald Adam Deas, who taught at Nevil Holt between 1968 and 1994, knew about the abuse committed by Peter Copas and Edmund Clements, but failed to act. Deas, who was appointed Head of Games having previously taught at Maidwell Hall, was quickly promoted to Senior Master in the 1970s.
I spoke to Ron deas about a year before the school closed. Ron was very open about his hatred for Clements. He never approved of Clements strict way and I even remembered walking into a classroom with Ron and Clements going at it about a punishment which Clements had handed out to a pupil. Having said that, mr deas indicated to me that Clements was forced to leave as a result of his strict nature and inappropriate punishments including pulling by the ears and physically throwing people around. I just wish he had been thrown out sooner.
Link to source
Deaso who is largely credited by alumni was a self-proclaimed “Superman” was simply a bully who wielded a golf club with swift swipes and stings for innocuous 11/12 year old behaviour. Whilst he may have had good intentions, he was vindictive and a mean SOB when he wanted to be.
I was at NH from 1968 to 1975. Like ***** ****** I spent a lot of time with Copas and I liked him a lot.
On a walking holiday when sharing a dorm with him in bunk beds, in the middle of the night he asked me to get into his bed. I made an excuse that I would not be able to because of the YHA bed sheets.
That was that for a while but I felt horrible and betrayed.
The following term he started putting me under pressure to come to his room and masturbate together. I made some excuse but he put me under pressure over the course of a few days.
After a few days Deas took me to one side and told me that he was aware of what had happened, that Copas felt terrible about it and it would not happen again. He also told me not to tell a soul not until I was on my death bed. I did not tell anyone until I met my wife – some 13 years later.
When Copas hung himself the police came to see me and they were already aware of what had happened. They also told me that Phillips also knew. They were given my name by a contemporary so there was at least one other person who knew about this.
So those are the facts. Deas and Phillips covered this up for years. They knew that Copas was a paedophile but did nothing. He did not abuse me but given that he committed suicide it is hard to believe he did not abuse others.
As others have commented he was a very nice guy and inspirational is correct. I even saw him for several years after leaving NH.
Whilst many, but not all, really liked Mr Deas. I personally did not like him. He had his favourites, be charming, but also mean and and spiteful. After passing my Common Entrance, my parents got permission to take me to France for a week on business, as a reward. When I returned he publicly humiliated me for being absent in front of the sixth form and took it upon himself to make my last months at the school a misery. It is not a shock that he may have known about the abuse and tried to cover it up. … If, as people allude, David Phillips and Ron Deas did know of abuse and covered it up/facilitated moves of abusers to other schools, then I am appalled. How the abuse remained undealt with for so long should shame David Phillips, Ron Deas and the Police.
School Doctors and Nurses (matrons)
Nevill Holt typically employed three nurses, called ‘matrons’, at any one time and a school doctor – a GP from a local surgery – visited once a week. It appears that none of these people raised concerns to the authorities despite complaints from pupils and clear evidence of sexually related injuries and conditions.
Survivors of Nevill Holt report that all boarding pupils were forced to line up naked at shower time to approach a matron, who would place shampoo in each boy’s hands for showering. Showering would be supervised by a teacher, called a ‘master’. Most nights in the 1970s and 1980s this would be either Peter Copas or Edmund Clements.
It is abhorrent and indefensible that not one matron ever reported the abuse they witnessed at Nevill Holt and not one school doctor ever reported on injuries on boarding pupils they treated.
One of the former matrons even participates in the “Nevill Holt Survivors” Facebook group, describing the school warmly, saying her time there was “an adventure“. However, she also admits she did nothing about her concerns regarding certain teachers:
I also can tell you some stories about staff…….! … it would compromise someone to tell. But strangely when I read the news in the paper about ‘head hanging himself’ I think it was The Times, I wasn’t surprised by the story only in that it wasn’t whom I thought it would have been.
13+ Public Schools and other local prep schools
Reliable sources tell us that a number of former Nevil Holt pupils made disclosures about abuse in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s at Nevill Holt at their next school. These schools included Winchester, Stowe, Repton, Trent, Greshams, Rugby, Laxton, Oundle, Oakham and Uppingham. At a number of these schools, Nevill Holt’s reputation was apparently “common knowledge”.
A number of local prep and independent schools within 20 miles refused to play away boys fixtures at Nevil Holt during the 1970s and 1980s or stopped playing away fixtures at Nevill Holt. This resulted in annual boys’ sports matches being arranged with schools as far away as Brackley in Northamptonshire, Dunchurch in Warwickshire, Leamington Spa in Warwickshire and Edwalton in Nottinghamshire. Some of these schools were nearly 50 miles away. Of the prep schools and senior schools that did play sports fixtures with Nevil Holt, a number have since been linked to child sexual abuse. These include Spratton Hall, Oakham School and Greshams. Alex Renton described 1970s Maidwell Hall in his book ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ as “a concentration camp for unwanted children masquerading as a school.“
Collusion and negligence by Leicestershire Police Constabulary and Market Harborough Police station
We understand from survivors that reports were made to the police by parents, a music teacher (whose car window was smashed on-site at Nevill Holt by Edmund Clements in retaliation, we understand), a visiting HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspector) in Autumn 1985, relatives of pupils, a nanny (au pair) and a guardian of a boarding pupil, regarding physical, sexual and psychological abuse of boys by teachers and staff at Nevill Holt between 1968 and 1992.
Specifically, allegations were made to the police in 1968, 1972 (2), 1973, 1975 (2), 1977, 1981, 1983, 1984 (2), 1985 (2), 1986, 1990 and 1992 (2). In 1992 a complaint was also made to the chair of governors. We understand two referrals were made by HMI to IAPS in 1985 and 1986. No action was taken by Leicestershire Police until allegations of historical abuse by Peter Copas and Edmund Clements were investigated in 1997/1998 and no further investigation or action relating to Nevill Holt has been taken by Leicestershire Police since 1998.
On one particular occasion, after a complaint had been made to Market Harborough police in the early 1980s, Peter Copas invited the local police constable to talk to all the boarders on a Sunday afternoon to tell them off regarding a stealing incident in the tuck shop. Peter Copas stood next to the police constable as he chastised the boys for their behaviour. Not only was this completely inappropriate, but it projected an image that the police were on the school’s side and that – in the child victims’ minds – there was no point in telling anyone about the abuse that was going on.
In 2021, IICSA published a damning report in which the Leicestershire police constabulary was exposed and criticised for persistently and systematically covering up allegations of child sexual abuse in schools and residential settings for over 40 years.
This page refers to Nevill Holt Preparatory School, a boarding prep school operated between 1929 and 1998 at The Hall, Nevill Holt, Medbourne, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 8EG. If you would like to contact the researcher, please leave a comment below.
Nevill Holt Preparatory School 
Our President Trump in America uses the phrase, “Clean the swamp.” It sure sounds like this place definitely needs to be cleaning it’s “swamp” and thank you for the follow. This is horrible!
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I went to NH from 89-94 and although it was full of posh pricks as all prep schools are I really wanted to know if Griz Copas abused people directly as he gave me some of the best life lessons I’ve ever had and I didn’t get one iota he was a nonce cunt ?!….. he was so good with us all so I was surprised to here he was a kiddy fiddler
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I was at Nevill Holt from 1969-74 entering the school aged 8 I went on a ski-ing holiday to France and a trip up Snowdon with Griz as we knew him with his young dog Sally Griz was known for his liking of eating a fried egg yolk whole after cutting away and eating the white first Those of us at the long refectory tables sitting either side of him would hold up his serviette so he could consume the egg behind it Everyone knew what was going as we rotated around the table and had all held up the napkin at some point I was there when Bernard Dragescu joined the school He was young vibrant, 20 I think and did as well as anyone to teach me French ( later I gave it up prior to O Levels) so that’s not a great endorsement of his teaching I was part of the model club when it was started by Draggy in one of the towers of the school It was up there I learned after I left the school that he had abused one of our group of friends Somehow I managed to get through the whole time without being subject to any of these terrible abuses or even being aware that others were being subjected to these It was/ is an imposing/ menacing Gothic relic of a building but the cameraderie amongst us boys and the times we had was a time of innocence I did wake up David Philips and his wife my first night with my home sickness, I did look young for my age and it curiously was only later after I left I was subjected to some unwanted interest firstly on a farm where I worked aged 14 It was known that this particular worker gave youngsters particular interest It was the 70s everyone else knew and the other employees would be interested to see how the first day had gone with this chap Mick He took an interst in my nylon pants and one afternoon while in a massive field alone with him where we were bale stacking he launched himself at me I ended up flat on my back in the stubble with him rubbing his groin into mine I talked him out of doing anything else and only mentioned it years later to some one else who had worked there We had a laugh about it It was the 70s stuff happened Obstacles had to be got around I was really angry after a tutor at a College of Further Education tried it on one Christmas Holiday after some extra tutoring & some drinks I told my parents this time but it was the 70s so it went no further Giving teachers good references in order to move them on as happened with Dragescu is criminal At our last NH reunion David Philips and his wife Nina joined us in Uppingham for 1/2 hour He wasn’t well and in fact by that time the following year both these people who had covered up so much were dead I am not sure he ever wanted to run the school but his Father insisted and he was bullied into it He was compliant He was I am sure made aware of the weaknesses of men with young boys but was if you like by Birthright bound to keep the place running at any cost We now know some of those tragic painful human costs
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Was also there 69 to 74 – and my recollections mirror almost exactly the prior posters – I recall Deaso (the senior master) who was a godsend to all the boys there – I liked Copas (Griz) very much and had no idea of what was going on Clements I thought was just a nasty vicious bully and I didn’t know how awful he truly was. The school was pleasant (or as pleasant as a boarding school in the 70’s could be to a 10 year old). But there was significant bullying and masters like Clement’s and Draggy were ones to be avoided. Phillips (or “Davo”) struck me as an ineffectual person not helped I am sure by his terrible stammer and I think it allowed there horrible behaviors to go on behind closed doors.
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I was at NH between 1991-1994, I remember Griz being a very good teacher and he helped me alot during my time there. Still cannt believe he was a nonce but reading things lately and evidence I’m not too sure now. I never heard or experienced and inappropriate activity. Deaso was a legend, full respect to him.
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I was there for a few years from 1976 – 79, before moving into a military school. NH was more brutal than that school. However, I do have fond memories, pleased to say I wasn’t sexually abused but I agree that Clements was an evil person. I think his wife taught us art. Mr Cooke and Deaso were decent sorts and like others I liked Griz. He took our colts rugby side in 77-78. Just goes to show you never know what goes on behind closed doors! Agree that the music teacher with the piss stained trousers was bloody weird too.
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I left NH in 1966 with 76 strokes from “Serille” Philips. I remember the number because it was a record for my cohort. I largely forgot about NH until 30 years later when I met someone at a business lunch who was apologising for his lumpy fingers – result of being caned on the hands with an oak walking stick he said. I instantly showed him the identical deformation of my own fingers and asked him if it was NH. Of course, it was a shared legacy from Fred Phillips, the conman who managed to bag a rich American girl, used her to help him acquire the school, later ostracising her to a maid’s room near King John’s Tower while he shacked up with head housekeeper Canary Graham in the main hall (was messing with her in my father’s day).
F. “Serille” Phillips is the root of everything rotten reported on this site. Most of the bizarre changing room and dormitory routines that later boys describe were already in place in my time (but not the nudity). So was the control over contact with parents, probably because FSP feared leaks. I remember sneaking extra bits into my Sunday letters lamenting the ills of the place. I once ran away at night and recall being caught at 5.0 a.m outside Melton Mowbray, being driven back to the hall at frightening speed by DSCP, who gave us both 6 in the changing rooms before sending us back to breakfast and a full school day.
You could look back and say, “well that’s how it was back then”. But that’s not true, because it wasn’t like that in my father’s day, much earlier in FSP’s career. I think that once FSP got his business running without being sussed, he took to the high life, turned into a bloated nicotine monster and then beefed up the control mechanisms in order to keep everything under wraps – difficult given that he was wont to get pissed and then go roaming, either as a Stasi, or a clown, depending on how the drink took him. So all those routines, forced silences everywhere, surveillance, beatings, hierarchies of favourites, sneaks and trusted old camp guards – they only needed the smallest tweaks from the later generation of sexual abusers.
And the control mechanisms weren’t just for the pupils, they were also for the old lags like Cooke, Moorhouse, the secretary who typed through the beatings, and of course, his own stammering sons and cowering wife. I remember the secretary (also there in my father’s day) didn’t even look up when I weed on the carpet just before I got my first hand beating, aged 8. So I’m disappointed to read that DCSP didn’t clean the place up and failed to monitor the obviously weird people whom Grabbitas and Thring kidnapped to be schoolmasters (according to Molesworth). DCSP wasn’t a bad sort, but of course he was the product of his abusive conditioning and thus inexplicably loyal to a father he knew was a brute, a fake and a bastard to his own mother. I think the speculation that the later abusers had dirt on FSP which kept David’s mouth shut is probably correct. I remember jokes about Peverett’s name when he first came. Who would have guessed we were right? The worst of it is that he perverted the course of enquiries that might have stopped the abuse much earlier and then skated free to Sweden.
My wife used to tell me that the biggest lesson I learned from NH was an excessive suspicion of and contempt for management that was still getting me into trouble years later. Looking back now, I don’t think she was wrong. I was conditioned by the best. As FSP once boomed from the high table, “You’re lucky to be at the one of the finest schools in the world, how dare you lout about with your dessert?”. Lucky lads!
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I was at NH from 1968 (the term that the school was handed from Old Serille to DCSP) until the summer of 1972. So many memories.
If it helps to jog anyone else’s memories, I recall:
Masters:
– Ron “Deaso” Deas whose son Ken was in the same year as me. I believe Ken went to New Zealand as a policeman.
– Maurice Lanyon who taught Latin and Music.
– Ernest “EEC” Cooke who has a room opposite to my dorm, Florentines, and played the radio as a treat for us. He was a brilliant maths teacher. I attribute directly to him my liking for maths and ultimately my career in Finance.
– Roger Willson who taught history brilliantly, taking us to local sites of interest including the Battle of Naseby (1645)
– John “Scott” Cooper who taught French and took us on walking holidays in the Lake District.
– John Cantrell who taught geography.
– Eric Wraight (much discussed in this blog) who was frankly insane and cruel. I think he had had some kind of head injury earlier in life.
– David Phillips, of course, who taught Latin and Biology. His awful stammer was said to be caused by the brutal bullying he experienced from his father. Sadly, DCSP continued the physical abuse with regular canings. I remember one occasion where I was caned by snooker cue. When the cue hit my hand it broke in two. I was quite a celebrity for a while. I remember when Nina Phillips came home from hospital having given birth to Annabelle. We decorated the school gates. That must have been 1970 or 1971. DCSP’s son from a previous marriage, Simon Phillips, was before my time.
– Bernard Jean-Francois Frederic Dragescu, who taught French, of course. I believe he later inherited an aristocratic estate in northern France.
– Peter Copas, who was an inspirational teacher of English. I was saddened to hear of his suicide some years after I left. I liked him.
– Leslie Moorhouse who taught music.
– Miss Viney who taught art.
I never personally experienced or even heard of any sexual abuse of the boys by the masters, but I was at NH before the era of Clements.
Pupils in and around my year:
– Andrew Harland
– John Renner, whose family lived at “Whare Koa” farm in Normanton
– William Hawthorne, who had an elder brother. I think William went on to Stowe.
– Minto Lohoar, whose family were farmers in King’s Lynn
– Neil Sims
– Chris Ashton
– Jonathan and David Bennett-Baggs
– Jonathan Buxton whose father ran a furniture business in Nottingham.
– Jeremy Canham
– John Orton
– David Lapham
– Nicolas Matthias, whose father I recall worked at Mars Confectionary
Despite the horror stories described by others about NH, for whom I have huge sympathy, I have fond memories.
Happy to engage with anyone: timw9999 (at) gmail (dot) com is my email address.
Tim Williams
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I also remember:
– Brian Harrison, whose father was quite a lot older than other dads and who was some kind of engineer. I met Brian at an old boys’ reunion a few years after I left and he turned up in a Healey 3000. I played cricket with shaved down bats against the school.
– Nick Turley, who went on to be a water colourist. He did some lovely paintings of the school.
– The Spurrier brothers who were twins, I think.
– A pair of brothers called Thompson. I recall they were the “min” and mi” of four Thompsons at the school at the same time, the other two being “ma” and max”. The older Thompson brother was a loathsome boy. A terrible bully and very fat. He was (inevitably) knows as “Tommy Fat”. It came as no surprise to me that he had apparently been murdered in turf wars in Leicester where he ran a hamburger van. Or so I vaguely recall.
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I have found a letter home from Purton Stoke Prep school written by my late Uncle, which suggests abuse to me. It would fit, as he killed himself aged just 18. He was at Purton Stoke (mentioned on this site under entry regarding teacher Eric Wraight) around 1953-4, when he would have been 9 and 10 years old. He refers to the Latin Teacher taking him aside and teaching me « a dreadful lot just before bed, when I was in my pyjamas » because his latin verbs were not good enough. Does anyone have any more info they might share? My mother wants to understand what happened to her brother.
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We don’t have much information about Purton Stoke Prep beyond two witness accounts relating to Eric Wraight, which are dated 1960 and 1964. However, when searching for proof that Eric Wraight taught at Purton Stoke, we did find multiple entries in the Berkshire Electoral Registers. The Electoral Registers are a useful source for this period, because they list all the teachers who were resident in boarding schools. From the Electoral Registers we were able to find the following teachers who were resident at Purton Stoke in the 1950s: Robin Brommell Allport (1952-4), Graham Howard Trevelyan Clark (Founding and only headmaster 1940-1965 – reference: https://issuu.com/dean_close_school/docs/issuu_book2017 page 54 and https://oro.open.ac.uk/57507/2/295257_vol2.pdf p280), Ronald William Dempster (1952), Keith Barrington Bellett (1953), Stuart Atheriey (1954), Peter William Nicholson Janes (1953-8), Charles George David Glass (1956-9), Philip W.b. Grahame (1956), Peckitt C. Carr (1956), Albert Edward Clifford (1957), John J. Goodwin (1958), Anthony Frederick T Maw (1958-9), Harold Osment (1958), John G. Haslam (1959), Eric N. Wraight (1959-1965) and Cornelius Carol (?-1961).
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Thank you so very much. That is very helpful.
If you have time, could you give me any hints on how I might find out who the Latin master would have been in the 1950’s?
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This may help: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=-1925622&catln=7
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A long shot, but the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre might have archives: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a/A13531109
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Thank you so very much.
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