Renowned musician charged with child sex offences

A former teacher has been charged with child sex offences and is due to appear at Colchester Magistrates' Court in October

A renowned musician and choirmaster has been charged with child sex offences spanning more than 40 years, police have said.

David Pickthall, 65, of Cheveley Park, Cheveley, Cambridgeshire, was awarded an MBE in 2015 for “services to education and to charity” and worked as the musical arranger for Channel Four's Paul O'Grady Show.

Essex Police said Mr Pickthall, a former teacher, had been charged as part of an investigation into alleged offences against 19 people between 1980 and 2021 in Brentwood and the Havering area.

He has also been charged with 24 counts of indecent assault, 10 counts of observing a person doing a private act, and three counts of making an indecent image of a child.

The accused was working as a choirmaster in the borough of Havering and a teacher in Brentwood during some of this time period, Essex Police said.

Mr Pickthall is due to appear before Colchester Magistrates' Court on 8 October.

Over the course of his career, the musician worked extensively in TV and film, conducting music on the film Tracy Beaker: The Movie of Me in 2004 and supervising the music for Julian Fellowes' Most Mysterious Murders in 2005.

He was presented with a civic award for services to the arts in Brentwood in 1997.