A PIANO teacher who carried out sexual offences against children between 1976 and 1995 was jailed for three years by the Royal Court yesterday.
Harry George Hayman (69), also known as Gary, of Chemin de Hérupe, St John, was sentenced for offences against six children — five of them his former students who were between the ages of six and ten. Deputy Bailiff Michael Birt, who was sitting with Jurats Tibbo and King, described Hayman’s offending as being on the ‘lower end’ of the scale of indecent assault offences, but still serious enough to warrant imprisonment.
‘Your offending involved a total of six children, it continued over many years, and in most cases it was repeat offending with the same child,’ said Mr Birt. ‘The children were also very young, most of them under ten, and you were in a position of trust in relation to five of them, giving them piano lessons for which parents had placed the children in your care. Offences of indecency are regarded with abhorrence — the removal of a child’s innocence and corruption of trust are so serious that other than in exceptional circumstances it must be punished with imprisonment.’
Defence Advocate David Le Quesne urged the Crown to consider a suspended sentence of 18 months to two years and said that Hayman, who suffers from chronic anxiety, was ‘not a risk to society’. He assured the court that his client would never teach young children again. However, the court followed the recommendation of the prosecution to jail Hayman for three years.
• Picture: Hayman leaving the court
