Teacher lan Brigden jailed for sexual abuse of pupils

Brigden was a former maths teacher at the school, which no longer exists
A former maths teacher who carried out a “campaign of sexual offending” while working at two private schools has been jailed for five years.

lan Brigden, 67, admitted 14 sex crimes against two boys during his time at schools in Norfolk and West Sussex. Judge Rupert Overbury, sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court, said the offences involved a “gross breach of trust”. Brigden, who was extradited from msterdam, abused the pupils over three years in the 1970s and 1980s.

The court heard Brigden, who will serve his sentence in Holland, abused the boys after taking them on holidays around the UK. Childhood ‘horrors’ Jan Brewer, prosecuting, said Brigden touched the boys sexually and also instructed them to take their clothes off. Judge Overbury, sentencing, said: “ll the offences involved a gross breach of trust. “he offences were persistent and amount, in my judgment, to a campaign of sexual offending.”

He said Brigden’s guilty plea had spared the victims from having to relive the “horrors of their childhood” at a trial. Nicholas Bleaney, mitigating, said Brigden had not committed any further offences. He said Brigden, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and appeared in court in a wheelchair, had “acknowledged his offending”. he court heard Brigden – also known as lan Morton – taught at Pennthorpe School, in Rudgwick, West Sussex and at St George’s School when it was based in Wicklewood, Norfolk. One of the 14 offences related to his time in West Sussex, with the remaining 13 committed while he was working in Norfolk.

St George’s School, which later relocated to Great Finborough, Suffolk, has since closed. The offences included six counts of indecent assault, four counts of indecency with a child and four charges of assault with intent to commit a serious sexual assault. One of Brigden’s victims, whose identity cannot be revealed, said the offences had a “profound and lasting negative effect” on his life. “I cannot relay how much this man manipulated me,” said the victim, in a statement released through police. Brigden’s conviction comes after the former head of St George’s, Derek Slade, was jailed for 21 years in 2010, for more than 50 sex offences committed in Norfolk and Suffolk between 1978 and 1983. In 2011, another teacher, lan Williams, killed himself after being arrested on suspicion of sex assaults at St George’s, when it was at Great Finborough, in the 1980s.

If you were subject to abuse or you know of a friend or relative who was please get in touch in the strictest of confidence.