A music instructor from a Perthshire school has been jailed after assaulting teenage schoolgirls with his drumsticks and engaging in a months-long “illicit affair” with a 17-year-old pupil.
Among James Clark’s seven victims was a teenager he subjected to sex-talk.
The former cowhand who joined the armed forces when he was 20 and rose to chief instructor for pipes and drums for the entire British Army, was told by a sheriff: “Sexual activity in relation to a girl under 18 in relation, to whom a man is in a position of trust, is always a crime.”
Clark, 56, had taught drumming at the “traditional” Perthshire school since 2012.
He appeared for sentence at Falkirk Sheriff Court after a jury found him guilty of three charges of common assault by hitting or touching girls’ bottoms – two of them using drumsticks – three charges of breach of trust by sexual activity with or directed at pupils and one charge of communicating indecently with a pupil.
His victims were girls aged 13 to 18.
‘No exceptions. It is always a crime’
Sheriff Alastair Brown sentenced him to one year and nine months’ imprisonment.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for a decade.
Sheriff Brown said: “You described yourself to some [pupils] as their school dad.
“I cannot conceive of any sensible father swatting the buttocks of his nine to 14-year-old daughters.”
He added: “Sexual activity by a man in relation to a girl under 18 in relation to whom he is in a position of trust is absolutely prohibited.
“There are no exceptions.
“It is always a crime.”
Clark, now a gardener, showed no emotion as he was led to the cells.
The court heard he will never work with children again.
Trial heard of smacking
During a seven-day trial in September, the court heard the 6ft 2in tall former colour sergeant had a “habit” of touching girls on their bottoms.
One pupil, now 23, said he had “regularly” struck her on the bottom and she was once actually bruised.
She said during a school trip to Switzerland in 2015, Clark had “smacked me on the bum pretty much all the time”.
Other pupils said when they challenged him about hitting their bottoms with his hands, drumsticks or a rolled up copy of the register, father-of-six Clark would tell them: “I’m your school dad”.
One ex-pupil said when she was 16, Clark had cornered her at a Christmas concert in the school and told her, “the two of us should have children together.”
He was also said to have hugged girls and entered one senior girl’s bedroom when she was asleep, sat on her bed, and kissed her on the forehead.
‘Illicit affair’ with one girl
The court heard Clark had previously taught at Loretto boarding school in Musselburgh and at top independent school George Watson’s College in Edinburgh.
The school where the incidents occurred between 2011 and 2018 cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Jurors heard the liaisons with the 17-year-old occurred in 2018 and ranged from kissing in a cupboard to oral sex in a store.
In February 2019 she went to the headmaster.
The girl, now 20, said Clark had “abused” her, in his car, in the band hut, an office, common rooms and in the children’s tuck cupboard.
She said he had “kissed her open mouthed”, kissed her neck and left a “hickey”, put his hand up her t-shirt, and put his hand under her skirt.
She said while giving her a lift in his car, he had put his hand on her thigh, pulled over, took his seat belt off, and started kissing her.
‘Grooming’ claims
During one car journey, she said, he had unbuttoned her jeans while driving along the motorway, pulled her zip down, put his hands in her pants and started touching her.
He sexually engaged in sexual activity with her in the school.
She said Clark had told her she could not tell anyone what he was doing and she had suffered from “victim shame and guilt for a long time”.
Clark, of Etrick Loan, Edinburgh, had denied the charges.
Jurors found him not guilty of sexually assaulting the girl but guilty of the alternative offence of sexual activity with a pupil under his care.
In evidence, he claimed she was “flirty”, “very willing”, accused her of “grooming” him, and said “sexual tension” had led to sexual contact and “proper adult kissing” in his office.
His counsel, Sarah Livingstone, said he’d had “an illicit affair” with the girl.
Prosecutor Cheryl Clark said she had been groomed.
