Head of music is acquitted of child abuse

Head of music is acquitted of child abuse

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norman lebrecht

December 05, 2017

Sean Farrell, former head of music at Wellington College and director of performance at Trinity College, London, has been found not guilty of fondling a pupil more than 30 years ago.

Farrell, 49, denied abusing a pupil at Ampleforth College in the 1980s. He told the jury he had never kissed or touched the boy inappropriately.

Fellow teachers testified that they had not heard or seen anything untoward in his behaviour with children.

 

 

 

Comments

  • Kathleen Quinn says:

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

    • norman lebrecht says:

      The national media report trials but, apparently, not acquittals.

      • Tenorlove says:

        Acquittals don’t get published because the MSM got what they wanted when the charges were brought. Reporting acquittals would make the MSM look like idiots.

        • Another Hasbeen says:

          Actually my knowledge of UK media law may be a little rusty but a newspaper which reported the start of criminal court proceedings but not a subsequent acquittal would almost certainly lose the absolute privilege under the “fair, accurate and contemporaneous” test and therefore open itself to a libel action by the acquitted defendant. Of course the report of the acquittal tends to be rather less prominent than the initial reports of the accusations!

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