Cheryl Gillan: 'Court gravely misled over paedophile'

Roland Peter Wright was headmaster at Caldicott Preparatory School for 25 years

A court was "gravely misled" when it prevented a child sexual abuse case from being heard, an MP has said.

Dame Cheryl Gillan told parliament information was not disclosed at a pre-trial hearing in 2003 regarding paedophile Roland Peter Wright.

It led to a judge ordering a stay which meant the case was not heard in open court.

The issue came to light in 2008 but no action was taken, Dame Gillan said.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it applied to lift the stay in 2012.

The MP for Chesham and Amersham was holding an adjournment debate on the issue of non-disclosures in the courts system.

She said the matter was brought to her attention by one of her constituents who said he was abused by Wright.

Dame Cheryl Gillan spoke about the issue in Parliament

Wright was the headmaster of Caldicott Preparatory School in Buckinghamshire from 1968 to 1993.

In 2014 he was jailed for eight years for sexually abusing five pupils between 1959 and 1970.

Dame Cheryl said there were two indictments brought in the case against Wright, the first in 2003 and the second in 2012, but only the second made it to trial.

"The counts that related to the extensive abuse suffered at Caldicott School by my constituent, as well as by a further four former pupils, were contained in the first indictment that was stayed," she said.

"That meant that the history of abuse suffered by my constituent... and the other former pupils was never heard in open court."

'Appalling discovery'

The MP explained the defence made an application to Aylesbury Crown Court for the stay, but failed to disclose relevant information relating to it.

She said the defence did not tell the court about their correspondence with the school regarding pupil records.

She said her constituent was "deeply unhappy about the negative outcome" and the "appalling discovery" that the court was "gravely misled".

Ms Gillan told Parliament: "To my constituent's complete and abiding astonishment the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) did absolutely nothing."

A spokeswoman for the CPS said: "We take allegations of historic sexual abuse very seriously and clearly it is concerning that it took so long for Roland Wright to be convicted.

"The allegations which have been raised are of non-disclosure by the defence, not the prosecution.

"We applied to the judge to lift the stay in 2012 and, whilst a trial on the victims' allegations was not possible, they were able to give evidence in other proceedings against Roland Wright."

The Solicitor General Lucy Frazer QC told Ms Gillan she acknowledges the "hurt and anger" felt by her constituent, but there were "no findings of any misconduct by the bar standards board in relation to the case".