Former head teacher Roger Whitehouse jailed for 1980s sex assaults

Roger Whitehouse denied physical contact of any kind with the girl

A former head teacher has been jailed for sexually assaulting a girl at a south Cumbrian school during the 1980s.

Roger Whitehouse had denied indecently assaulting the then 16-year-old girl, but was convicted on four counts after a trial at Carlisle Crown Court.

The 79-year-old of Seaview, Haverigg, was jailed for 32 months and put on the sex offenders' register for life.

Earlier this year he received a suspended jail term over child cruelty at a different school.

The court heard Whitehouse had not committed any offences since the 1980s and had suffered mental health difficulties and "personal struggles".

'Private fiefdom'

But Judge Nicholas Barker said he had shown "not a moment of remorse".

"Having heard the evidence, it is clear to me in many ways you ran that school as something of a private fiefdom," Judge Barker added.

"You were free from proper scrutiny and therefore free to abuse in the way that you did."

In January, he was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years after being convicted of cruelty charges relating to his time at Witherslack Hall, a boys' school at Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria.

Two former pupils detailed incidents from the 1970s and 1980s.

The jury heard Whitehouse made one of them walk from a quarry barefoot after he had freewheeled a dumper truck into it.

Whitehouse had told the court he was strict and "didn't stand any nonsense", but said he only rarely raised his voice to boys at the school.