Ex-principal jailed for indecently assaulting boy

Ex-principal jailed for indecently assaulting boy

11 December 2019

THE former principal of a local primary school has been jailed for two years for indecent assaulting a young boy over 25 years ago.

Richard Samuel Hazley, who was principal of the now closed Ballycloughan Primary School near Saintfield, was further sentenced to two years’ probation on release at Downpatrick Crown Court last Thursday.

The 54 year-old was found guilty by a majority verdict of 14 indecent assault charges following a trial in September. 

Hazley, from Railway Street, Poyntzpass, denied all charges against him which were carried out on the boy aged from 11 to 18 when he stayed over at the defendant’s home.

One charge was dated from August 1, 1993, to July 31, 1994, and another was dated from August 1, 1994 to July 31, 1996. The rest were specimen charges from between August 1, 1995, to December 20, 2001.

The court heard from a Crown barrister that Hazley became friendly with the boy’s parents while he was tutoring him and they agreed that their son could stay over with him on occasions in order to help him further.

On one occasion, the boy said that he was required to sleep in the same bed as Hazley who briefly touched his private parts.

The other charges related to Hazley watching the young boy shower and helped to dry him with towels and talcum powder afterwards.

The Crown barrister said that there was no sexual touching by Hazley during the showering incidents except for one occasion when he asked to check part of the boy’s intimate area.

The barrister said that the boy, now aged 34, was also taken out by Hazley, a single man, for one-to-one outings and trips during these years.

He added that there was several aggravating features to the case against Hazley, who was arrested nearly three years ago. 

The barrister said that the assaults were carried out on a boy from the age of 11, that there was a clear breach of trust from Hazley’s position as a tutor and friend of a family, the difference in social circumstances between Hazley and the boy’s family, the age difference of 17 years between them and that there was an element of grooming and targeting of a “vulnerable child” who had been left “feeling desolate and isolated” as a result.

The court heard from a defence barrister that Hazley still protested his innocence, but accepted the court judgement after being found guilty.

The barrister described Hazley as “living a blameless life” for the past 18 years, with no further complaints being made to police, while stressing that the defendant also had a completely clear record.

He said that Hazley’s “reputation was in ruins, professionally and privately, and he was most likely never be able to work again”.

The barrister pointed out that even the injured party testified the assaults were always “momentary” in nature.

The barrister added that Hazley retired as a principal due to suffering from chronic fatigue and also suffered from depression and anxiety which was exacerbated since the court proceedings.

Hazley later went on to work as a private tutor, but had since been unable to work with students.

The defence barrister also told the court that the injured party had returned to see Hazley as a young man in his twenties to ask for help, mainly financial, but had later reneged on the agreement to pay back all of the money. 

Hazley believed that the man’s complaint was “vexatious”, added the barrister, who also asked Judge Geoffrey Miller not to enforce a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) against his client.

While accepting a probation report that Hazley presented a “low likelihood of reoffending, generally and in sexual offences”, the judge spoke of the lasting effect the assaults had on the man from childhood.

He said: “There can be not doubt that the custody threshold has been passed. The innocence of childhood is a precious thing.”

Judge Miller rejected the prosecution’s application for a SOPO to be enforced on Hazley, but banned him for ten years for working with children and vulnerable people.