April 2012

A FORMER Crookham Court School teacher who was jailed last month for sexually abusing a pupil has decided to appeal his conviction.

Mark Standish, also known as Alex Standish, (pic below) now of Station Street, Waterhouses, Durham, was sentenced to four years in prison at Reading Crown Court last month (March), after a jury found him guilty of four counts of indecently assaulting a pupil while he was a teacher at Crookham Court School in Thatcham between 1988 and 1989.

The school closed in the late 1980s after being exposed by the Newbury Weekly News and BBC TV series That’s Life, which led to three members of the school’s staff being convicted for sexual abuse.

After a trial at Reading Crown Court in 1990, the owner of the school, Philip Cadman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

French teacher William Printer was convicted of two indecent assaults and one attempted serious sexual assault, and was imprisoned for 10 years at the same trial.

English teacher Anthony Edmonds was jailed for six years after admitting four charges of serious sexual assault and seven charges of indecent assault.

Cadman’s and Printer’s sentences were both reduced to six years on appeal, and now 48-year-old Standish is to appeal his conviction.

A spokeswoman for the Court of Appeal, who did not want to be named, said the case could take up to 13 months before it comes to court.

“Firstly we have to file papers in the case, and then it goes into a waiting list.

“When a single judge becomes available they will see the case. The judge will have the papers for between four to six weeks before they decide whether there are grounds for appeal,” she added.