SELF-CONFESSED paedophile Derek Slade became headmaster of a boarding school where he abused young boys despite having no formal teaching qualifications.
Slade, who during his trial was likened by the prosecution to the tyrannical headmaster Wackford Squeers in Charles Dickens’ Nicolas Nickleby, had begun his career in private education at the age of 23.
By the age of 28 he and a group of male and female colleagues had set up their own school to cater for the sons of non-commissioned officers in Britain’s three armed forces.
It was while head of St George’s School that Slade committed the offences of which he has been convicted. At the time he had been living at a house in the school grounds at Great Finborough, Suffolk, with his mother and at one time his grandmother.
Following allegations of abuse at St George’s School being highlighted in a BBC programme in 1982 the Department for Education had launched an investigation but concluded there was insufficient evidence to take any action.
After leaving St George’s School at Great Finborough in 1983, Slade moved to Horsham, West Sussex, where he set up another boarding school and installed himself as headmaster.
It was during his time at Dalesdown School that Slade was charged and convicted at Chichester Crown Court of assault causing actual bodily harm to two boys.
Slade went on to have a successful career as an author and publisher of educational textbooks after leaving teaching in 1986.
During Slade’s trial it was revealed that he had written stories about child abuse in 2008 and which he claimed were fantasy – although the prosecution suggested they could have been memories of what he had done.
Bearded and casually dressed throughout his trial at Ipswich Crown Court, Slade sat in the dock making occasional notes as witnesses gave evidence against him.
In total 21 people were called into court to testify about what Slade had done or what had been uncovered during the subsequent police investigation. Witnesses included 13 former pupils at St George’s School.
As prosecutor Andrew Thompson outlined details of the charges to the jury Slade had stared downwards and shaken his head.
During the trial, former pupils at St George’s School, now mostly men in their 40s, were among the handful of people watching from the public gallery.
