Yesterday, a music teacher was arrested for assaulting teenage girls while teaching at boarding school using drumsticks.
James Clark, 56 years old, was the former chief drum- and pipes instructor for the Army.
Additionally, he was found guilty of breaching trust by engaging in sexual activity with or directed towards pupils as well as communicating indecently and with a female student.
Clark, aged between 13 and 18, was sentenced for attacking seven teenage girls. Falkirk Sheriff Court heard Clark’s alleged ‘habit’ of touching the bottoms of girls in Perthshire school.
An ex-student, now aged 23, claimed that she felt violated after being repeatedly hit on the backside. This happened often in tartan skirt fitting sessions at the school shop.
James Clark (pictured), 56, was a former Army chief drum and pipe instructor. He had been found guilty in common assault for hitting or touching people’s backsides.
Clark, as pictured in the photo, hit her across the back during a trip to Switzerland. Ex-pupils claimed that Clark would hit her bottoms using his drumsticks, hands or a roll-up register copy when they asked him questions.
Clark allegedly told a victim that she had approached her when she was sixteen at a school Christmas concert. She said: “The two of you should have children together.”
He also allegedly hugged girl pupils and entered one student’s bedroom while she was asleep. Then he sat down and kissed the forehead of her.
Jurors learned that Clark was involved in sexual activity in 2018 with a 17 year old girl, kissing her in a cupboard and engaging in sex acts in the bagpipes store.
Clark was sentenced after he attacked seven 13 to 18-year-old girls. He received a one year, nine month and nine months prison terms. Falkirk Sheriff Court (pictured) ruled that Clark was a “habit” of touching the bottoms of seven girls aged 13-18 at the Perthshire school.
Clark, 20 years old, said that Clark had abused the victim in her car, band hut and drying room. He had raped her and hid his hands under her dress.
Clark, a resident of Edinburgh, denied the accusations. Sarah Livingstone, his defender, claimed that Clark had an illicit affair with the girl. But Cheryl Clark, her prosecutor, claims the victim was groomed.
Sentencing Sheriff Alistair Brown stated that sexual activity between a man and a woman under the age of 18 in relation to a girl is strictly prohibited. There are no exceptions. It is always considered a crime. Clark was a gardening worker and showed no emotion when he was taken to prison cells. He won’t work with kids again.