May 2008

Pervert Teacher Loses Jail Appeal

A FORMER teacher who abused pupils at a private school was sent back to prison by appeal judges yesterday.

Jonathan Quick, 72, was originally sentenced to eight months’ jail by a sheriff after admitting five indecency charges while a teacher at Dollar Academy in Clackmannanshire.

The retired Latin teacher spent less than a month in prison before being released in April last year pending an appeal against the sentence.

But judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh have now rejected his challenge to the prison term.

Lord Kingarth, who heard the appeal with Lord Philip, said: “We have come to the clear view that it cannot be said that the sheriff erred in any way in the exercise of his discretion or that the sentence was excessive.”

Quick committed the sexual abuse of five pupils between 1977 and 1980 while he was a teacher at the fee-paying school

He has been living in a Kinross-shire nursing home and was brought to court by a care worker but left in custody.

Dollar Academy is being sued by the parents of David Young, who committed suicide after alleged sexual abuse by Quick.

The death of the 23-year-old in 2002 sparked an investigation which resulted in the prosecution of the former teacher at Alloa Sheriff Court.

Sheriff David Mackie, who jailed Quick, said the offences he admitted were “an appalling breach of trust”.