Courage of Malsis School sexual abuse survivors praised after teachers are jailed

Peter Holmes abused 19 pupils at the Malsis School in Glusburn, while working there as an English teacher and rugby coach between the 1970s and 1990s.

It comes after David Hope, who raped a boy while working at the school as a music teacher in the 1980s, was jailed for 17 years in December. Detective Constable Alison Morris, who led that investigation, branded him “a monstrous child abuser”, and praised his victim for speaking out.

Some of the survivors who were abused by Holmes were at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, when he was jailed for 12 years.

The 73-year-old former teacher was found guilty of 28 offences, including indecent assaults and gross indecency with children, following a six-week trial.

The court heard he ordered some boys to use a rowing machine in his flat while they were naked, he rubbed deep heat into several pupils’ legs and "spooned" one on a school trip to the Lake District.

Police said that when complaints were first made in the 1990s, officers could not reach the teacher because he had moved to Taiwan.

But the investigation was reopened in 2018, when fresh complaints were made, and DC Morris tracked him down at his home in Bristol.

She took dozens of witness statements from former pupils and staff connected to the independent preparatory school, which closed in 2014, before he was charged with a string of offences.

DC Morris said: “It has been proved that Peter Andrew Holmes is a systematic child abuser who used his position of authority as a teacher to prey on the victims who have bravely pursued justice against him.

“His reign of abuse at Malsis School spanned three decades. He has caused an enormous amount of trauma for the victims which they have endured from childhood through to the present day.

“I truly hope the conclusion of this case, with Holmes finally brought to justice and serving a significant prison sentence, they can begin to look to a future with hope and happiness in their lives.”

In court yesterday, Judge Nadim praised the courage of the survivors who came forward to make complaints against Holmes.

“The giving of evidence by, if I may say so, middle-aged men with families and careers about the sexual abuse of them while they were children could not have been easy at all,” he said.

“It is hoped that each of them is better able to move forward in their respective lives in the knowledge that their abuser has been finally brought to justice.”