Jailed: Ex-teacher gets 14 years for string of sexual assaults on children

John McKno, 70, committed assaults against five children between 1979 and 1989, at three different boarding schools around the country.

One of the schools was St Michael's College in Tenbury Wells, on the Shropshire border - although the school has subsequently changed ownership and reopened as an international school with no connection to the establishment at which the offences took place, apart from the buildings and the name.

McKno, of Alby Hill, Alby, in Norfolk, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday. He will remain on the Sex Offenders' Register for an indefinite period.

Among the charges admitted by McKno were two counts of gross indecency with a child under 14, committed while at St Michael's between January 1979 and December 1985.

He was first arrested in 2014 by detectives from Suffolk Police's Operation Garford, set-up specifically to investigate allegations of abuse at the former Kesgrave Hall boarding school in the county.

The investigation then widened to include allegations from McKno's earlier time at Beam College in Devon, and then St Michael's.

He pleaded guilty to another sex offence and two counts of indecent assault with boys under 16 at Kesgrave Hall from 1985 to 1989, as well and one count of indecent assault and two other offences at Beam College from 1975 to 1979.

Detective Inspector Jim Gooding, senior investigating officer, said: "The sentencing of John McKno finally provides justice for his victims, who have waited between 30 and 40 years for this day.

"McKno committed the most heinous crimes and stole the childhoods of his victims from them, preying on them at a time when they were vulnerable and abusing his position of trust.

"This was a very challenging investigation for all of the team who worked on it."

Detective Constable Wendy Leah, who was officer in the case of Operation Garford and interviewed all the victims, added: "John McKno was in a privileged position as a teacher or member of care staff when he committed these offences against vulnerable boys for his own sexual gratification.

"The victims involved in this case have been extremely brave in coming forward and the outcome of this case is a credit to them having to endure the emotional torment of re-living these events.

"Time should never be a barrier in achieving justice. I hope the sentence passed today provides some level of closure and allows the victims to continue to recover from these traumatic experiences."

St Michael's College was run as a boy's school until 1985 but was closed and sold to Cloister's College, and then sold to the King's group in 1992.

It is now an international school known as King's College Saint Michaels.

Current headteacher Stuart Higgins said: "Our school is therefore in no way linked with the original boys' school, other than by occupying the same premises and having a similar name."