The reason that I have detailed numerous accounts of physical abuse of schoolboys at Warwick School by sadistic history teacher Geoffrey Eve is twofold: Firstly, I hope to make other victims realise that they are not alone. Secondly, it is for Warwick to accept its failure in terms of a duty of care in not only ignoring abuse but in covering it up. Now I have been made aware of the clearest and most shocking evidence of that cover-up culture and it concerns sexual abuse.
You may recall that Eve was put on a fully paid leave of absence for at least a year in the 1970s after just one too many incidents of physical abuse came to light. He returned to the school in 1978/9 just in time to teach me history in 3A, when I was just turning 11, and to physically assault me twice, throwing my head against the wall on both occasions. He carried on abusing other boys for another two or three years until one boy suffered such severe damage to his hearing that his parents complained so forcefully that Warwick gave Eve early retirement on a full pension. It also allowed him full access, as an honoured guest, to all school and OW events, until in 2011 I kicked up a fuss.
Warwick should have fired Eve in the 1970s and reported him to the Rozzers. But it covered up for him so he could abuse even more little boys. And in refusing to reach out to all OWs as part of a lawyer-led independent enquiry to establish just how many other victims there are, it is still covering up.
I have also written of a teacher who, two boys have told me, sexually abused them. The “modus operandi” of abuse is almost identical in both accounts so I believe the boys. Today I discovered that the Warwick teacher record of the man in question shows that a parent of a third boy complained about the inappropriate behaviour of this teacher towards her barely teenage son. Natch this teacher carried on teaching at Warwick and left with glowing references and appears to still be offering private tuition to schoolchildren. This incident was in the 1990s when even Warwick should have known better.
So, I am aware that this teacher stands accused of molesting three boys but you can bet the ranch that there were many more. Predatory paedophiles are just not that restrained. The only way that the truth will emerge is if Warwick goes public on the issue, more victims come forward and the Police get enough evidence to make a case. One victim coming forward is not enough. You may also remember that one victim recalled another teacher witnessing his abuse. Natch Warwick’s cover-up means that if there was a second pervert teacher, he too was left to carry on as he wished.
So Warwick’s new headmaster, who was himself a pupil at the time that this paedophile was being protected by the School he now runs, must do better than his two predecessors who have, as I noted yesterday, let down myself and other victims of abuse. Only a full, lawyer-led enquiry, which sees Warwick reach out to OWs outside the happy band of rugger bores who read the old boy’s magazine happily remembering their glory days, to all OWs, will establish the scale of the abuse and why on earth Warwick opted to cover it all up.
HM James Barker over to you….