Teacher went on to abuse more children after he was dismissed by school

May 04, 2023

Roger Caffrey has been sentenced for abusing three more victims

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A former teacher serving more than 17 years for sexually abusing pupils has been sentenced for touching three more victims.

Disgraced Roger Caffrey was dismissed from Northgate Primary School, in Old Basford, over an allegation of inappropriate touching in the 1980s.

Police were notified, but there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution, leaving him free to move to a new teaching post of children at Westdale Primary School in Mapperley - and abuse three girls there.

Only last year was he brought to justice for his crimes after his victims at Northgate came forward and gave evidence before a jury at Nottingham Crown Court.

During and after the trial, after seeing reports in the Nottingham Post and media, more victims came forward, this time from Westdale Primary School.

Today (Friday, August 4), he was given ten months consecutive to the sentence he is serving for those new allegations.

Sentencing Caffrey in the dock, Judge Timothy Spencer QC said he had been dismissed from Northgate Primary School because of an allegation of inappropriate touching.

"That was a very clear warning to you, which we now know you decided to ignore," said the judge.

"What was not known then was that you had effectively conducted a campaign of abusing various of your pupils".

He added: "Having had that clear warning shot, you were extremely fortunate to gain employment as a junior school teacher at Westdale Primary School.

"It was not known at the trial last year, that there were girls of a similar age who had had similar experiences to those you abused at Northgate.

"What did emerge at that trial is after your time at Westdale Primary School you raped a girl in her late teens".

Caffrey, 72, admitted nine indecent assaults on three girls at Westdale Primary School when he appeared in court last month.

Now retired, only one of the new charges happened away from the school.

Prosecutor Abigail Husbands described one of the victims being excited to be in Caffrey's class at Westdale Primary School.

"But that excitement fell away when she realised he was a bit of a bully," she said.

"She was upset. Roger Caffrey told her to go to the front of the class. He encouraged her to have a sweet which she did not want.

He forced the sweet into her mouth. He ran his hand over her waist and around her buttocks over her clothing. He had such a grip on her she could not pull away."

Adrian Langdale, mitigating for him on Friday, said he had pleaded guilty to the new allegations.

"That is a sea change in the person who came before you [last year] and gave evidence," he said.

Caffrey was found guilty last February of three rape charges and 12 indecent assaults.

Judge Spencer had passed a total sentence of 17-and-a-half years on all charges and ordered Caffrey, previously of Sandesquoy, Tankerness, Orkney, to sign the sex offenders’ register. He was automatically barred from working with children.

The judge had told him for 15 years he had "led a lie".

"You had another side. You were a sexual abuser of girls and young women on a serial basis."

The court had heard how Caffrey put his hand up girls’ skirts as they read at his large desk at Northgate Primary School.He touched at least two girls in a store cupboard, his trial heard.

The judge had said Caffrey, previously of Wollaton, held a particular "maligned power" over one of them.

Caffrey had asked her to stay behind, leaving her isolated and helpless. He abused her when she was effectively trapped in the storeroom with him.

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