≈ Comments Off on Nigel Leat – Worle/Weston-super-Mare
March 2021
‘Predatory paedophile’ Nigel Leat who sexually abused pupils recalled to prison
A primary school teacher who filmed himself sexually abusing his pupils has been recalled to prison after breaching his licence conditions.
Described as a “predatory paedophile”, Nigel Leat captured on camera the attacks he carried out on five young girls over the course of five years at Hillside First School in Weston-super-Mare.
Leat, who is now in his 60s and is also known by the surname Russell, was jailed indefinitely in 2011 after admitting 36 offences including attempted rape of a child and sexual assault.
He was only released from prison in November last year and a source told the PA news agency he had been recalled to prison last week for breaching his licence conditions.
In making its decision last year, the Parole Board said Leat was “suitable for release”.
The panel was told he was not an “imminent” risk in the community and all the witnesses who gave evidence – his probation officer, prison psychologist and prison offender manager – recommended that release on licence “would be safe at this point”.
One of Leat’s victims said: “The fact that he has been recalled after just four months of being out of prison speaks volumes to me.
“I was horrified at the fact he was released at the end of last year in the first place – and the Parole Board were made aware of all of our fears.
“Now it is evident they are completely justified.
“If he hasn’t committed another crime then he must have done something that made his probation officer extremely concerned for the public’s safety.
“It goes without saying, I am glad he hasn’t committed another crime, however the horrendous impact of this man’s crimes has been never ending for us.
“Just when you start to believe you won’t think about him every day another intrusive reminder occurs, and it is all brought back up again – leaving it back fresh in my mind. It feels calculating from him almost.
“Although he’s not going to let us move on.”
The mother of one of Leat’s other victims said: “This whole saga has put a huge emotional strain on my daughter’s mental health.
“First the parole decision to release Leat – at a time that we did not feel was long enough for him to be rehabilitated, and now this.
“It really brings into question the decision by the Parole Board to release him when just a few months later it’s decided he poses a risk to the public.
“You don’t get recalled to prison for going down to the shop to buy flowers so I really wonder what has gone on for him to be back inside.
“I just feel for all the victims really – it is messing with their mental health.
“The only positive is that this time I will be able to submit a victim statement so I can explain fully the position my daughter is in now.”
Leat used to identify “star pupils” and shower them with gifts before abusing them in one-to-one reading sessions at the school.
The father-of-two would then molest girls as young as six as they practised their reading aloud in class and get them to perform sex acts on him at the same time.
Leat could be heard in the films referring to the girls as “sweetie pie” and “darling” and asking them how much they loved him.
When he was arrested by police, officers found more than 30,000 indecent photographs and over 700 movies in his possession.
A damning report showed that the primary school where he worked had catastrophically failed to protect the children in his care.
School bosses failed over 14 years to act on 30 warnings about his sexual behaviour with pupils, but his conduct was never investigated.
He had abused children in the school’s computer room, resource room, staff room and even during lessons with other pupils present.
Leat also regularly filmed the pupils’ harrowing ordeals using a camera provided by the school, storing hundreds of films on more than 20 memory sticks labelled with his victims’ names.
September 2018: Now moved to an open prison
January 2012
Paedophile of ‘the most sickening order’ was able to film himself abusing girls in primary school classrooms because bosses did NOTHING despite 30 warnings
1) Nigel Leat was jailed indefinitely for abusing five girls – some as young as six 2) Teachers at Hillside First School, in Weston-Super-Mare, complained… 3) … but managers did nothing about his increasingly sexual behaviour 4) The 51-year-old continued to work at the primary school for 15 years
He was finally arrested when victim told her mother she had been sexually abused almost every day for TWO MONTHS
A paedophile teacher filmed himself abusing girls in the classroom after school bosses failed over 14 years to act on 30 warnings about his behaviour.
Nigel Leat, 51, was described by a judge as a ‘paedophile of the most sickening order’ when he was jailed indefinitely last year for abusing five girls, some as young as six.
Yesterday a damning report showed that the primary school where he worked had catastrophically failed to protect the children in his care.
Over 14 years, concerns had been raised repeatedly about Leat’s behaviour with pupils, but his conduct was never investigated. He had abused children in the school’s computer room, resource room, staff room and even during lessons with other pupils present.
Leat also regularly filmed the pupils’ harrowing ordeals using a camera provided by the school, storing hundreds of films on more than 20 memory sticks labelled with his victims’ names.
Paedophile: Nigel Leat, a married father-of-two, breaks down during questioning by police
Staff at Hillside First School in Worle, Somerset, first noticed Leat selecting girls who were ‘less academically able, emotionally needy or pretty’ as his ‘favourites’ a year after he started teaching there in 1996.
His inappropriate behaviour was so well known that staff tried to prevent children likely to become his ‘star pupils’ from being put into his Year Two and Year Three classes.
In 2004, a mother claimed Leat had been taking pictures of her daughter with a mobile phone but he denied the accusation and no action was taken.
Four years later, two children told staff that Leat, a married father of two, had been touching their legs and kissing one of them – causing her to be sick – and a teacher twice reported him to the head.
Another member of staff saw Leat projecting an indecent image of an adult on to a wall during a lesson.
Leat was also seen lifting up and groping young girls in the playground, tickling and cuddling pupils in class and sitting on cushions with a schoolgirl while visibly aroused.
But those staff members who reported Leat’s behaviour were told they should not ‘insinuate things’ and were bullied into silence, a report said yesterday.
It was later discovered that Leat would routinely hide a camera under his desk and then summon his victims, recording the subsequent horrifying images of the abuse.
In many of the videos, which are up to ten minutes in length, other children can be seen or heard in the background.
When police finally became involved, Leat first denied wrongdoing but later admitted 36 sexual offences including rape, assault and voyeurism.
Yesterday a review by the North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board concluded that his appalling crimes could have been stopped much earlier if the school had not failed to act on the warnings.
Instead, out of 30 disturbing incidents noted, only 11 were mentioned to the school’s headmaster, Chris Hood, and none was passed on to an agency outside the school.
Leat was only arrested in December 2010, when a schoolgirl told her mother he abused her ‘every day apart from when the teaching assistant was in the classroom’.
Police who raided the home he shared with his wife, also a teacher, found more than 30,000 images, including 61 pictures and 21 movies at level five, the most serious level.
At least 20 children were victims of Leat’s abuse or witnessed it at the school, which caters for 128 children aged between four and eight.
Three Ofsted inspections undertaken during the time Leat was abusing his students graded it as ‘good’ and a report in 2009 noted: ‘Pupils feel exceptionally safe and secure because they know that staff have their well-being at heart.’
Tony Oliver, who chaired the serious case review, said: ‘There was a failure at every level within the school.
‘There was a culture which just did not empower people to voice their concerns. It could be interpreted as a culture of bullying.’
He said the headmaster had been sacked following a disciplinary process
