Former matron CLEARED of paying schoolboy for sex with Mars bars after court hears he was ‘using case to try and sue school for £120k’
The victim had said he kept the alleged abuse a secret for years until the claims against Jimmy Savile came to light
A FORMER private school matron accused of paying a schoolboy for sex with Mars bars has been cleared by a jury in less than an hour.
The boy, who was 11 at the time of the alleged offence, had claimed Tiffany Carter, then 17, climbed into his bed after lights out at £22,000-a-year St Andrew's prep school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the 1980s.
He says the abuse started in September 1986 with "cuddling and kissing" but it later moved on to oral sex and intercourse, for which he was paid in Mars bars.
But today after just one hour a jury at Lewes Crown Court cleared Carter, now 46, of three counts of gross indecency with a child and two counts of indecent assault of a boy aged under 14 between September 1986 and April 1987.
The dad-of-two, who is now a teacher in his 40s and cannot be named, said he lived with the secret until the Jimmy Savile scandal made him come forward.
Throughout her trial Carter had denied indecently assaulting the boy.
Today in the final stages of the case it emerged the victim is suing the prep school for £120,000 compensation.
The former pupil has been accused of using the criminal trial "as a stepping stone" to his compensation claim.
In his closing speech her lawyer Julian Dale QC told the jury the former matron only worked at the school for four weeks and the pupil and his mother's account had changed through the trial.
He said: "There's a lot of evidence in this case that is a frightening mess.
"Something rather strange and rather troubling has happened in this case. Since last Thursday when the victim signed a civil action affidavit, his account has changed.
"For two-and-a-half years he's been working on this with that civil firm of solicitors before the action is signed off."
Mr Dale added: "You've seen documents from the school that show my client started on September 3,1986, and left on October 8, 1986.
"The boarders would have come back on the Monday, so that's one month and a day where she would have come into contact with the boy.
"In the original statement signed last Thursday it says the abuse went on for months and months, up to six months in fact.
"But on Monday morning when he gave evidence suddenly he said it was much shorter. Maybe a few weeks, he said.
"I asked him why this changed he said 'well a day to a child is like a month'."
The barrister added that the former schoolboy claimed someone had told him the school records show she was only employed for a few weeks - but he refused to say who told him.
He said that the alleged victim's mother also changed her account.
During the trial at Lewes Crown Court the jury heard that the man claimed he had held back from telling anyone what happened for years because he did not want to compromise his position as a teacher.
This morning Judge Richard Hayward said: "He says he was asked to go back to her room, and he thought he was on the first dormitory.
"She gave him some sweets, and he says she returned about ten times, late at night and after lights out.
"He says he had to creep past other rooms to get to her room, where he was being kissed and cuddled.
"He said she showed him how to masturbate her and that he touched her vagina and played with her breasts.
"The encounters moved to oral sex. He said he found it exciting."
The judge said the boy also performed oral sex on the 17-year-old matron but said he "didn't like it and felt confused".
Growing up, Judge Hayward added, the victim "became quite aggressive" and "got into fights" in his teens.
At the time the boy, who cannot be named, confessed to his mum after fearing he had caught AIDS but jurors heard claims the posh school tried to cover it up by not informing police.
His mum told the court yesterday: "My husband wanted to go to the police at the time.
"But because she had left their school I just wanted to make sure she no longer worked with children again.
"I was very upset and emotional at that time."
The alleged victim is said to have flown to Brighton in July 2013 to meet with lawyers over a civil action against St Andrews that has yet to have begun.
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