Tweet
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ARED-jury.html
Matron who was accused of paying schoolboy, 11, with Mars bars in return for sex weeps as she is CLEARED by a jury
A school matron accused of paying an 11-year-old former pupil for sex using Mars bars wept in court as she was acquitted.
The jury took just over an hour to clear 46-year-old Tiffany Carter of two counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child.
Ms Carter was visibly shaken as the foreman read 'not guilty' to each of the five charges and smiled to the jury while her parents cried in the public gallery when the verdict became clear.
The boy was just 11 when he claimed Ms Carter, then 17, climbed into his bed after light out at St Andrews prep school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the 1980s.
He then claimed the abuse started in September 1986 with 'cuddling and kissing' but it later moved on to oral sex and intercourse, for which he was paid in Mars bars.
The father of two, who is now a teacher in his 40s and cannot be named, said he lived with the secret until the Jimmy Savile scandal made him come forward.
Speaking afterwards Ms Carter thanked the jury and said: 'It was a joke from the start. We're just glad to be getting on with our lives.'
Prior to the criminal case against Ms Carter, the victim had begun civil action against St Andrews Prep School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and was seeking £120,000 compensation.
Lewes Crown Court had previously heard how the victim's account of the alleged abuse did not tally with the facts.
Judge Richard Hayward said: 'The victim said the abuse carried on for as long as six months.
'But documents from the school showed that the defendant only worked at the school for four weeks.'
Ms Carter's barrister Julian Dale QC claimed the alleged victim only made the allegations because he is 'suing the prep school for £120,000 compensation'.
The former pupil was accused of using the criminal trial 'as a stepping stone' to his compensation claim.
In his closing speech Mr Dale told the jury his client only worked at the school for four weeks and the pupil and his mother's account had changed through the trial.
He said: 'There's a lot of evidence in this case that is a frightening mess.
'Something rather strange and rather troubling has happened in this case. Since last Thursday when the victim signed a civil action affidavit, his account has changed.
'For two-and-a-half years he's been working on this with that civil firm of solicitors before the action is signed off.'
Mr Dale added: 'You've seen documents from the school that show my client started on September 3,1986, and left on October 8, 1986.
'The boarders would have come back on the Monday, so that's one month and a day where she would have come into contact with the boy.
'In the original statement signed last Thursday it says the abuse went on for months and months, up to six months in fact.
'But on Monday morning when he gave evidence suddenly he said it was much shorter. Maybe a few weeks, he said.
'He said it happened in his second year and she would invite him up to her bedroom and the boarding house after lights out.
'He gave an account of an occasion when the school was delousing the building and she kept him back to have sex in the showers and even gave him oral sex and this continued for months.
'I asked him why this changed he said 'well a day to a child is like a month'.
'He admitted someone had told him the school records show she was only employed for a few weeks but he refused to say who told him.
'Even his mother changed her account, she also initially said it was over a period of months, then said it was a few weeks.
'He also said he was enticed up to the matron's room by the promises of TV and his mother said it was a group of boys that went up, but we later found out there was no TV up there, no one was enticed.
'Both the Crown's witnesses are changing their accounts from their original statements to fit with the other evidence to try and fit the complaint with my client.
'There's no other explanation.'
The victim flew to Brighton in July 2013 to meet with lawyers over a civil action against St Andrews that has yet to have begun, Mr Dale added.
Mr Dale said: 'This case was only handed to the police to try and assist with a civil claim against St Andrews school. That's rather unattractive.
'The action is drawn up, the affidavit is signed, it's all ready to go if my client is convicted.
'He knows perfectly well his solicitor called the police to use it as a stepping stone to try make a civil claim.
'I managed to get out of him he was claiming for 8,000 Euros (£6,300) a year in loss of earnings so for 19 years since he left university, that's around 150,000 (£120,000) Euros at least.'
Mr Dale also disputed the accuracy of a letter sent by the then-headmaster Hugh Jones that reported the alleged victim's initial account.
He added: 'The name Tiffany was not mentioned at the time. Given he had just started at the school you would think those details would be burned into his retina.
'The letter the Crown start from is the headmaster's understanding of what the house parent understood had happened. No one knows what the original account really said.
'The difficulty is we don't know whether the alleged victim was sexually abused by a matron, a gap student or another member of staff, but it was not by my client.
'Is it believable that in four-and-a-half weeks as a trainee member of staff she would latch on to an 11-year-old boy and abuse him on school grounds without anybody knowing?'
Matron who was accused of paying schoolboy, 11, with Mars bars in return for sex weeps as she is CLEARED by a jury
- Tiffany Carter cleared of indecent assault and gross indecency with a child
- The school matron had been accused of abusing boy, 11, in 1980s
- Now in his 40s, alleged victim said he was paid for sex acts in Mars bars
- But jury at Lewes Crown Court took just over an hour to clear her of crimes
- Court told he had also launched £120,000 civil compensation claim
A school matron accused of paying an 11-year-old former pupil for sex using Mars bars wept in court as she was acquitted.
The jury took just over an hour to clear 46-year-old Tiffany Carter of two counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child.
Ms Carter was visibly shaken as the foreman read 'not guilty' to each of the five charges and smiled to the jury while her parents cried in the public gallery when the verdict became clear.
The boy was just 11 when he claimed Ms Carter, then 17, climbed into his bed after light out at St Andrews prep school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the 1980s.
He then claimed the abuse started in September 1986 with 'cuddling and kissing' but it later moved on to oral sex and intercourse, for which he was paid in Mars bars.
The father of two, who is now a teacher in his 40s and cannot be named, said he lived with the secret until the Jimmy Savile scandal made him come forward.
Speaking afterwards Ms Carter thanked the jury and said: 'It was a joke from the start. We're just glad to be getting on with our lives.'
Prior to the criminal case against Ms Carter, the victim had begun civil action against St Andrews Prep School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and was seeking £120,000 compensation.
Lewes Crown Court had previously heard how the victim's account of the alleged abuse did not tally with the facts.
Judge Richard Hayward said: 'The victim said the abuse carried on for as long as six months.
'But documents from the school showed that the defendant only worked at the school for four weeks.'
Ms Carter's barrister Julian Dale QC claimed the alleged victim only made the allegations because he is 'suing the prep school for £120,000 compensation'.
The former pupil was accused of using the criminal trial 'as a stepping stone' to his compensation claim.
In his closing speech Mr Dale told the jury his client only worked at the school for four weeks and the pupil and his mother's account had changed through the trial.
He said: 'There's a lot of evidence in this case that is a frightening mess.
'Something rather strange and rather troubling has happened in this case. Since last Thursday when the victim signed a civil action affidavit, his account has changed.
'For two-and-a-half years he's been working on this with that civil firm of solicitors before the action is signed off.'
Mr Dale added: 'You've seen documents from the school that show my client started on September 3,1986, and left on October 8, 1986.
'The boarders would have come back on the Monday, so that's one month and a day where she would have come into contact with the boy.
'In the original statement signed last Thursday it says the abuse went on for months and months, up to six months in fact.
'But on Monday morning when he gave evidence suddenly he said it was much shorter. Maybe a few weeks, he said.
'He said it happened in his second year and she would invite him up to her bedroom and the boarding house after lights out.
'He gave an account of an occasion when the school was delousing the building and she kept him back to have sex in the showers and even gave him oral sex and this continued for months.
'I asked him why this changed he said 'well a day to a child is like a month'.
'He admitted someone had told him the school records show she was only employed for a few weeks but he refused to say who told him.
'Even his mother changed her account, she also initially said it was over a period of months, then said it was a few weeks.
'He also said he was enticed up to the matron's room by the promises of TV and his mother said it was a group of boys that went up, but we later found out there was no TV up there, no one was enticed.
'Both the Crown's witnesses are changing their accounts from their original statements to fit with the other evidence to try and fit the complaint with my client.
'There's no other explanation.'
The victim flew to Brighton in July 2013 to meet with lawyers over a civil action against St Andrews that has yet to have begun, Mr Dale added.
Mr Dale said: 'This case was only handed to the police to try and assist with a civil claim against St Andrews school. That's rather unattractive.
'The action is drawn up, the affidavit is signed, it's all ready to go if my client is convicted.
'He knows perfectly well his solicitor called the police to use it as a stepping stone to try make a civil claim.
'I managed to get out of him he was claiming for 8,000 Euros (£6,300) a year in loss of earnings so for 19 years since he left university, that's around 150,000 (£120,000) Euros at least.'
Mr Dale also disputed the accuracy of a letter sent by the then-headmaster Hugh Jones that reported the alleged victim's initial account.
He added: 'The name Tiffany was not mentioned at the time. Given he had just started at the school you would think those details would be burned into his retina.
'The letter the Crown start from is the headmaster's understanding of what the house parent understood had happened. No one knows what the original account really said.
'The difficulty is we don't know whether the alleged victim was sexually abused by a matron, a gap student or another member of staff, but it was not by my client.
'Is it believable that in four-and-a-half weeks as a trainee member of staff she would latch on to an 11-year-old boy and abuse him on school grounds without anybody knowing?'
Comment