Chatham pervert David Gutteridge who used to teach in Harrow guilty of indecent assault
Published: 00:01, 23 February 2015
Updated: 12:34, 23 February 2015
A former school teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage boy during the 1980s after he plied him with alcohol and cigarettes.
David Gutteridge used to make the boy watch pornographic films before he abused him.
He was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault on a boy under 16 at Harrow Crown Court earlier this month.
Gutteridge, 60, who used to live in High Street, Chatham, but is now of no fixed address, was found guilty of the offences at Harrow Crown Court during a retrial.
Jury members heard how at the time he was a teacher at Orley Farm Preparatory School in Harrow, north west London.
The boy was aged between 14 and 16 at the time of the assaults which happened between 1986 and 1988.
Gutteridge, would invite the victim to his flat at weekends and ply him with cigarettes and alcohol.
"The victim has stated that the abuse has had a significant detrimental effect on his life due to what happened to him in his formative years..." - DC Claire Harrison
He would then ask the boy to watch pornographic videos, before abusing him.
The abuse came to light when the victim, by now in his late thirties, confided in his wife about the abuse he had suffered as a boy.
He then decided to contact police.
Gutteridge was arrested in September 2013 at his home in Chatham and subsequently charged with the two counts of indecent assault.
DC Claire Harrison from the Metropolitan Police who led the investigation, said: “The victim has stated that the abuse has had a significant detrimental effect on his life due to what happened to him in his formative years.
“I would like to pay tribute to his courage and strength in coming forward and standing up in court to tell his story.”
Gutteridge’s first trial, which took place in September last year, resulted in a hung jury.
His retrial started at the beginning this month and he was found guilty last Tuesday, February 17 and Gutteridge will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 13.
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