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| Guildhall School of Music teacher jailed for sex attacks | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| An internationally renowned music teacher has been jailed for 11 years for sex attacks on two schoolgirls and a young woman in the 1970s and 1980s. | |
| Philip Pickett, 64, from Lyneham, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, attacked the girls and woman in sound-proof practice rooms. | Philip Pickett, 64, from Lyneham, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, attacked the girls and woman in sound-proof practice rooms. |
| He carried out the assaults whilst he was a teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. | |
| Judge Charles Wide said his crimes amounted to a "gross abuse of trust". | |
| Pickett was found guilty at the Old Bailey on 10 February of two rapes and two indecent assaults on his victims between 1979 and 1983. | Pickett was found guilty at the Old Bailey on 10 February of two rapes and two indecent assaults on his victims between 1979 and 1983. |
| He lured vulnerable pupils into practice rooms, where no one would hear their screams as he shut the door, turned out the light and assaulted them, the court heard. | He lured vulnerable pupils into practice rooms, where no one would hear their screams as he shut the door, turned out the light and assaulted them, the court heard. |
| Charges were brought after one of the victims alerted police after being prompted in light of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. | Charges were brought after one of the victims alerted police after being prompted in light of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. |
| At a hearing earlier, Judge Charles Wide, who jailed Pickett earlier this month, lifted reporting restrictions. | At a hearing earlier, Judge Charles Wide, who jailed Pickett earlier this month, lifted reporting restrictions. |
| He ordered that two further indictments relating to allegations by two women dating back to the 1970s lie on file. | |
| 'In awe' | |
| The first victim, who was 16 at the time of the attack, went to the school in 1978 as a sixth-form student to learn the recorder with Pickett. | |
| During a lesson he asked her to take her top off, suggesting she needed to work on her breathing, then ordered her to lie on the floor where he indecently assaulted her. | |
| In a lesson the following week, she was raped by Pickett, the court was told. | |
| Jailing Pickett, the judge said: "You were this woman and these schoolgirls' teacher, to a degree they were in awe of you, especially the schoolgirls, and, as far as they were concerned, this was specific targeting of a vulnerable victim, a girl you were teaching and you had power over who would be reluctant to complain and most unlikely to complain. | |
| "Even if they shouted, they could not be heard, as you knew well, having got them on their own and shut the door. | |
| "The impact of these very serious sexual offences must have been very great indeed." |