An elite London school has become embroiled in an FBI-led
international child abuse investigation into a highly regarded
teacher who is believed to have molested more than 90 boys.
William Vahey, a 64-year old American who taught at the
Southbank International School in Westminster between 2009 and
2013, killed himself in Minnesota in March after confessing to
drugging and molesting children while on field trips.
He had been found with a memory stick that contained sexually
graphic images of at least 90 boys who appeared to have been
drugged. They were catalogued with dates and locations that
corresponded to his overnight field trips with students
beginning in 2008 when he was teaching in the Escuela Campo
Alegre in Caracas, Venezuela.
Southbank's chair of governors, the former chief inspector of
schools, Sir Chris Woodhead, said the school was "deeply, deeply
shocked" by the FBI's announcement of the suspected mass crime.
The fee-paying school is used by foreign executives and
diplomats. Vahey taught boys aged 11 to 16.
Southbank's chair of governors, the former chief inspector of
schools, Sir Chris Woodhead, said the school was "deeply, deeply
shocked" by the FBI's announcement of the suspected mass crime.
The fee-paying school is used by foreign executives and
diplomats. Vahey taught boys aged 11 to 16.
Woodhead confirmed Vahey took part in several field trips while
at Southbank and said parents at the school were last night
showing "considerable concern".
The school is planning to either hold a meeting or will write to
parents within 24 hours about the crisis. Families are also to
be offered psychological counselling.
The FBI said that Vahey was jailed in California in 1969 for
child molestation, but Woodhead said that nothing showed up on
criminal record checks or references taken in the UK and abroad
by the school, where Vahey had taught history and geography.
Scotland Yard is helping assess the FBI's intelligence about
"potential alleged offences against children in London". The FBI
said it was trying to identify the dozens of children pictured
in the photos.
Patrick Fransen, an FBI special agent, said: "He had access to
children because of his position of trust. The manner in which
he committed these acts �while the boys were unconscious �may
have inhibited them from knowing what happened, making it
impossible for them to come forward at the time of the
molestation."
As well as teaching in London, Vahey also worked in schools in
Caracas in Venezuela, Jakarta in Indonesia, Dhahran in Saudi
Arabia, Tehran and Ahwaz in Iran, Athens, Madrid and Beirut,
during his career in education. The FBI has urged anyone who
believes they may have been a victim to come forward.
Vahey was working in Nicaragua when he was exposed in March by
his employer who discovered the digitised images, the FBI said.
When confronted about the images by a school administrator, he
confessed he was molested as a child and had preyed on boys his
entire life, giving them sleeping pills prior to the
molestation. Within days he killed himself.
"This is a completely shocking revelation," said Woodhead. "We
are co-operating with what is now an international police
inquiry. We are supplying the police with all the information
they want; trips Vahey took and so on.
"When he was appointed we ran a criminal records bureau check
and again three years later. In each case there was no cause for
alarm. "We took three references [from previous schools], two
from Venezuela and one from Jakarta. All of the references were
very positive and said he was an outstanding member of staff.
They said he was very willing to take school trips but with what
we know now that is not as positive as it was when we read them."
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/23/london-private-
school-child-abuse-investigation-teacher-confession
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