Former freelance teacher Kenneth Francis (72) was yesterday found guilty of 15 counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency committed while he was a teacher at Widford Lodge Boarding School in Chelmsford, Essex, in the 1970s.
The jury in the three-week trial returned their verdicts at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.
One of Francis’ victims told investigators: ‘The psychological scarring is something that I have had to struggle with growing up, but it never heals.
‘You just learn to live with it, as a dark part of yourself that you try to keep hidden away. Now I am able to let it rest for what it is.’
Francis is due to be sentenced on 27 August. His co-accused, Malcolm Archer, was cleared of two counts of indecent assault.
During the trial, evidence was heard that Francis would give reward stars to pupils he sexually abused at the English boarding school. Jurors heard from one alleged victim, who claims he was forced to perform sex acts on the defendant underneath the school stage and was rewarded with eight stars.
Francis came to Jersey in the early 1990s to work with St Luke’s Church. He then launched a career as a freelance teacher in the Island. He is believed to have subsequently played the organ at St Mark’s and Grouville churches, before becoming the director of music at the Town Church.
The States police said they had not been involved in the investigation, which was led by Essex Police, but had helped ‘facilitate’ some of Francis’s bail conditions.
