Locations
Bosham, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18
Description
A PERVERT jailed for preying on young boys while he was a teacher in the Kidderminster area has been sentenced for further offences.
Jonathan O'Brien, 61, spent more than a decade grooming young boys while he taught at Winterfold House School as well as schools in West Sussex and Oxfordshire during the 1980s and 1990s.
Twisted O'Brien was already serving time for sexual offences against young boys when he was convicted for the second time last month.
It took the victim more than 20 years to report the traumatic events which happened while he was a teenage student and O'Brien was a teacher at Seaford College, Petworth in West Sussex in 1992.
It was revealed just a handful of years earlier O'Brien indecently assaulted male students up to 170 miles away in Worcestershire and Oxfordshire.
In 2014, O'Brien was found guilty of sexually abusing pupils in his care during the 1980s - including five charges of gross indecency and 15 counts of indecent assault, all of which he had denied and he was cleared of two further indecent assaults.
Twelve of the offences were committed against seven boys at Winterfold House School - where he taught subjects including sports and photography - between 1980 and 1985 and the others were committed against three pupils at The Oratory School, near Reading, between 1985 and 1989.
Police Constable Yvonne Daddow said the former teacher pretended to have an interest in computers to groom the young boy, who kept the distressing experiences to himself.
She said: "This offending came to light when the victim contacted us for the first time in 2017.
"Having courageously come forward he supported our investigation and was ready to give evidence in court if necessary.
"It became clear that O'Brien had used an allegedly mutual interest in computers to in effect gradually 'groom' the boy into sexual activity, in O'Brien's study at the school and his home in Oxfordshire.
"The boy kept the distressing experiences to himself for more than 20 years until an chance family discussion to some media coverage on the general subject of sexual offending triggered him into coming forward.
"This case is another example of the way in which we will always take such reports seriously, no matter how long ago they relate to, and will seek to help achieve justice for victims wherever possible."
It was added that Seaford College has cooperated with the investigation by West Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit and the indecent assaults are unconnected with current or recent management of the school and it's pupils.
O'Brien pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault when he appeared at Guildford Crown Court on May 24.
The former teacher, from Bosham, West Sussex, denied two further counts of indecent assault on the same boy, which will lay on the court file.
He was handed two and-a-half years to run concurrently to a previous sentence relating to sexual assaults against boys in Kidderminster and Oxfordshire.
He was sentenced to 13 years at Chichester Crown Court in 2014 for the vile attacks which happened between 1980 and 1989.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and handed a Sexual Offence Prevention Order (SOPO) which severely restricts his contact with any children.