June 2001
Victims outraged by bizarre let-off
TWO judges sparked fury yesterday by slashing a pervert teacher’s jail term because the pupil he abused took 17 years to complain.
Campaigners said the ruling by Lords Prosser and McCluskey could deter victims from coming forward and put abusers back on the streets.
Teacher Nigel Cartwright repeatedly preyed on a girl pupil, starting when she was 13.
He even had sex with her while a guest in her parents’ home. He was jailed for six years and judge Lord Hardie told him he abused his position of trust.
But Cartwright would only have faced two years in prison if he’d been convicted straight away because sentences in the 80s were shorter.
So the appeal judges cut his punishment to the 80s level, two years.
Astonishingly, it was the judges who suggested the technical argument. They strongly hinted to Cartwright’s counsel that he should look at the law as it stood in the 80s.
They even questioned whether Cartwright should have been convicted at all but his counsel Edgar Prais said he accepted his guilt.
The decision amazed SNP home affairs spokeswoman Roseanna Cunningham, herself a leading lawyer.
She said: “If a murder case from 1964 were solved today, does this mean the killer should hang because we still had the death penalty then?”
Cunningham said the ruling was an appalling insult to abuse victims.
She added: “This sends out very confusing signals. It makes it seem as if abuse from the past is less serious.”
It’s feared the ruling could lead to appeals by perverts like David Murphy, who got 15 years for abusing boys at children’s homes between 1960 and 1986.
Others who could be affected include James Kiers, who abused a young girl in the early 80s.
Even the likes of George Cullen, who molested girls at a care home just before the law was changed in 1997, may harbour hopes of an appeal.
The judges were also condemned by pressure group Scottish Parents Against Child Abuse.
Spokeswoman Pauline Thomson said: “This is 10 steps backwards for the victims. They suffer while the perpetrators get off lightly again.
“How do we persuade victims to come forward now?”
Cartwright, 49, abused the girl when she was a pupil at now-closed Kilquhanity House School in Kirkcudbrightshire.
The school was known for its liberal regime and pupils had sex with each other.
Cartwright had sex with the girl for two years, starting when she was 13. He also had sex with her while staying at her home in the holidays.
The victim kept silent for years before speaking out in 1999 while suffering post-natal depression. She said Cartwright had “stolen part of her childhood”.
She added: “He would invite us all to his room for coffee then send everyone else away but me. He was grooming me, like paedophiles do.”
Lord Hardie said the school’s permissive rules made it even more vital for teachers to protect children.
But Cartwright, of Havant, Hampshire, appealed the length of the jail term.
And after the hint from the bench, Mr Prais argued that the law 20 years ago only allowed a two-year sentence.
Lord McCluskey ruled: “It would be a miscarriage of justice to exceed that period because of the complainer’s deliberate decision to make no report until more than 17 years later.”
February 2001
Six years for abusing 13-year-old-girl
A PERVERT teacher was slammed for “systematic abuse” of a teenage pupil as he was jailed for six years yesterday.
Disgraced Nigel Cartwright began weekly sex sessions with the girl when she was aged just 13.
And judge Lord Hardie hit out: “She feels that you stole part of her childhood and that is a fair way to put it.
“It was a pattern of abuse over a prolonged period. It is particularly serious because you were in a position of trust.”
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now 34 and living in Scandinavia.
She only reported Cartwright – who last month admitted unlawful intercourse – after giving birth and suffering severe post-natal depression
January 2001
TEACHER abused a 13-year-old girl at a boarding school where staff and pupils swam naked together
Nigel Cartwright, 49, had regular sex sessions with the youngster in his room and in the countryside despite being warned about their relationship.
A police investigation into the abuse at a Scottish school in the early 1980s was launched after the woman, now 34, suffered severe post natal depression following the birth of her son two years ago.
She confided in a friend working for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Children who advised her to make a complaint.
Cartwright was forced to quit his post at Cottesmore School in Buchan Hill, Pease Pottage, where he had worked for 12 years as a maths and computer teacher, when the revelations came to light.
Yesterday Cottesmore head Mark Rogerson said: On hearing of the allegations against him in April 2000 he immediately offered his resignation which was accepted. All parents were fully informed of the situation.
Nigel Cartwright was an exemplary teacher and was much respected by children, parents and colleagues alike.
Advocate Depute Sean Murphy, prosecuting at the High Court in Kilmarnock on Monday, explained Cartwright had worked at Kilquhanity House School in Castle Douglas, Dumfriesshire.
Youngsters at the school used to go for a chat and coffee to his room but by 1980 the 13-year-old victim was seeing him alone.
Mr Murphy said: On one occasion of her own accord she sat on his knee.
Another time he kissed her on the mouth and the affair developed.
In the term that followed she visited him in his room – the accused was in bed naked when he told her to remove her clothes and she got in bed with him.
Kissing and intimate touching followed.
The court heard the relationship attracted attention and Cartwright was warned by both the head teacher and the head s wife and advised not to encourage anything that might be considered innapropriate .
It was assumed Cartwright was not having sexual relations with the girl but Mr Murphy said: Within weeks the two did consumate the relationship having intercourse in the accused s room.
It became a regular practice for the remainder of the child s time at the school.
Mr Murphy added: One of the customs of the school was that parties of both staff and pupils took part in nude bathing in the river.
On one occasion sexual intercourse took place between them in an area close by.
During the summer holidays in 1980 the girl told Cartwright she thought she was pregnant and he visited her Glasgow home, leaving with a urine sample which proved negative.
On another visit to her parent s home Cartwright and the girl made love.
She left the school in 1982 but the affair continued for another year before the girl broke it off.
Interviewed by Dumfries Police, Cartwright admitted the illicit affair and left his job at Cottesmore after reporting the matter to the school.
Cartwight, of Havant, Hants, admitted shameless indecency and having unlawful sex with a girl.
Judge Lord Hardie ordered him to sign the sex offenders register and released him on bail until Friday, January 26, for sentencing at Edinburgh High Court.
