Stubton Hall School: Ex-pupil who had rapist teacher's child says abuse 'haunts' her

Children were sexually abused by staff at Stubton Hall School, near Grantham

"Lies shouldn't be kept away. He needed to know where he came from," says Clare as she recalls telling her son who his father was.

Clare*, a former pupil at Stubton Hall School in Lincolnshire, was groomed and raped from the age of 12 by deputy headmaster David Taylor.

Taylor, who lived in a flat in the school grounds with his wife and son, would rape Clare after she walked his dog.

Thirty-five years later, she says the abuse still "haunts me from the minute I get up to the minute I go to bed".

Clare was pregnant with Taylor's child when she left the school, near Grantham, aged 16, though she did not know it until she went into labour in the bathroom of her family home.

No-one questioned who the father was, says Clare, now 52. She tells the BBC: "Nobody said a word. It was just so surreal. It was like it wasn't me."

A "troubled child" who had been sent to Stubton, a boarding school for children with special educational needs, as an 11-year-old, Clare felt nobody would believe her if she spoke up about the abuse.

Clare says remains haunted by the abuse

It meant she gave birth to and then raised a baby only she knew had been fathered by the man who raped her.

"It did go through my head that if I kept him it would bring everything back in time, but I knew that he was mine," she says.

"I just saw my baby and he was nobody else's.

"I had to take care of him and just do what I could for him and love him unconditionally."

'A walking crime scene'

When her son Jack* was five, Clare decided to tell him who his father was. She admits it was "really hard" for him growing up but has no regrets about telling him the truth.

Jack, now 35, says he is thankful for having "a very good mum" who "did what she could", but he has struggled with anxiety and anger from knowing his father had raped his mother.

He tells the BBC: "I hate him. I've always hated him.

"Sometimes when you look in the mirror you can see parts of yourself in him, parts of him in me.

"I have to live with that because I obviously have his blood.

"I believe I'm a victim in all of this as well because obviously I'm basically a walking crime scene. I have his DNA so I'm a product of his crime."

David Taylor was deputy headteacher at the school where he raped children

In 2021, Taylor, then 71, was jailed for 19 years and six months after being found guilty of three counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault against five girls between 1975 and 1995.

The school's former head of care, Raymond Longley, then 86, was also jailed for four years after being convicted of four counts of indecent assault on a girl. He had been employed at the school between 1982 and 1997.

'He won't go away'

Both Clare and Jack are among 46 people who are now suing Lincolnshire County Council for damages over alleged mistreatment at the school, which closed in 2003.

Clare says she continues to suffers from anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, flashbacks and insomnia.

"It's still there in my head for the last 35 years and no matter how much counselling I have they can't take that away," she says. "He's there 24/7. He won't go away."

Katherine Yates, of Andrew Grove and Co Solicitors, who is representing the claimants, accused the local authority of prolonging victims' pain by refusing to hand over important documents.

She says: "These are real people, they are people who are hurting. A lot of them have been through the trauma of a criminal trial giving evidence because they knew it was the right thing to do.

"They just want this civil case because it will give them some compensation hopefully and also its recognition that what happened to them was wrong."

Heather Sandy, executive director for children's services at Lincolnshire County Council, said the authority expressed "deep regret over the abuse suffered by the victims in this case, and we wish to apologise to the victims".

The authority said it was unable to comment further about ongoing legal action.

*Names have been changed to preserve anonymity