Retired teacher found guilty of sex assaults on former pupils

Retired teacher found guilty of sex assaults on former pupils

28 March 2018

A RETIRED Newcastle schoolteacher was on a “power trip” when he indecently assaulted six former pupils, a court has heard.

Seventy five year-old Patrick James Carton, of Marguerite Close, will be sentenced next month after being convicted at Downpatrick Crown Court of 29 charges of indecently assaulting five girls and one boy between 1984 and 2007.

A jury of seven women and five men took just over three hours to convict him on each of the charges, following a seven-week trial during which the victims described similar patterns of abuse.

Carton, a former teacher of De La Salle High School, Downpatrick, and St Colman’s College, Newry, abused the teenagers while working as a private maths tutor in their homes.

He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register before being released on continuing bail, pending the production of a pre-sentence report.

Judge Brian Sherrard warned that his release should not be taken as an indication of the sentence that will be imposed.

The court heard that Carton, who tutored up to 150 people over his 48-year teaching career, used a “star system” to challenge students with three stars serving as a warning, four for a smack, five for a smack over underwear and six stars for a smack to the bare bottom.

Prosecutor Laura Ievers QC told the jury that he targeted his victims and “took advantage of their vulnerabilities”.

She said he was on a “power trip” and developed a “brass neck” as he realised the students were not speaking out.

“Whenever he realised the individuals remained silent he built on that,” she said.

During the trial, his victims wept as they recalled being spanked and touched by Carton during their lessons, which were held in bedrooms in their family homes.

The jury heard that Carton had instructed each of the six students to remove their underwear during lessons to be spanked over his knee or on a bed.

One victim, who was taught by him throughout her GCSE and A Level studies, said she was eventually ordered to remain exposed throughout her lessons “to save time”.

She said the abuse escalated as she got older when Carton “forced” himself on her. She said she did not tell anyone despite knowing what he was doing was “sexual and inappropriate”.

“I don’t know how much teaching he did,” she said.

“I would not say he helped me in any way. Patrick Carton knows what he did to me in that room.

“I had put up with it since I was 15. I thought it was going to be over soon. It has ruined my life.”

Another woman, who was around 12 when taught by Carton, said she thought Carton was joking when he told her, during her first lesson, that he would put her over his knee and spank her if she got a question wrong.

During her second lesson, she said he instructed her to close her bedroom curtains so her dad could not see into the room. She said he then set her a test, in which she go some answers wrong.

“He said: ‘I am warning you now, I am going to put you over my knee. I am going to take your trousers down and put you over my knee for every one you got wrong. I am going to spank you.

“I felt really uncomfortable, I really did not want to do it.

“He was so arrogant and adamant and when you are that age you are always told to do what an adult tells you to do.”

The girl said Carton became angry when she refused to take down her trousers and instead got over his knee fully clothed.

“I felt humiliated, totally ashamed and I lay over his knee and he smacked me on the bottom the number of times I got questions wrong. I left the room in hysterics,” she said.

“As you get older, you realise that should not have happened. He was a teacher, people put trust in him. I can’t explain how disgusting it is to do that to a child, a young girl of 13.

“I felt very angry at myself. I am very glad I did not take my trousers down. I still have the humiliation of getting over a man’s knee and letting him smack me.”

The mother of three of the victims said she “knew and trusted” Carton when he taught her children, and only later realised “there was something going on back over the 20 years”.

She explained that although the tuition began in the family kitchen, this was not “private enough for Pat Carton”.

Recalling the “earth-shattering experience” of realising they had been abused, she said she did not want to know the full details of what Carton had done.

Carton had told the jury that “smacking was a very small part of my weaponry to improve these children” and insisted they “did not have to go along with it”.

“It was a challenge to them, they could have all or it or none of it but as long as they accepted the challenge they committed to it and when people commit to something they want it to work. I am a professional at it, I did it well,” he said.

“There is a barrister and three solicitors whose bottoms I smacked.

“There are engineers, doctors, dentists, optometrists. Maybe people who have not had a successful life want to find somebody to blame.

“I don’t know what their motive is, I don’t understand it. It is my life that is on the line.”

Following the verdict, a spokeswoman for NSPCC Northern Ireland said it was vital that all victims of abuse felt confident to speak out about their attackers and receive justice for the crimes carried out against them. 

“As a tutor Carton had a duty to protect children in his care, but instead he abused that position of trust to carry out this appalling catalogue of offences against his young pupils,” she said.

“We hope that Carton’s victims are now receiving all available support.”

Adults concerned about the welfare of a child or non-recent abuse can call the NSPCC’s helpline on 0808 800 5000. Children can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or visit www.childline.org.uk for support 24 hours a day.