Published: Wednesday, 21st May, 2008 12:00
Perverted ex-teacher is sent back to prison
By Court Reporter
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Jonathan Quick has been returned to jail after losing his appeal.
A FORMER Classics schoolmaster who abused pupils at Dollar Academy was sent back to prison by appeal judges on Friday.
Jonathan Quick (72) was originally sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment by Sheriff David Mackie at Alloa Sheriff Court after admitting five indecency charges while he was a teacher at the private school.
But the retired Latin teacher spent less than a month in prison before being released on interim liberation in April last year pending an appeal against the sentence.
Last week, however, judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected his challenge to the prison term.
Lord Kingarth, who heard the appeal with Lord Philip, said, “We have come to the clear view that it cannot be said that the sheriff erred in any way in the exercise of his discretion, or that the sentence was excessive.”
He said that Sheriff Mackie had taken into account a number of factors, including the seriousness of the offences committed by Quick and his age and health problems.
And the judge said he had heard nothing that persuaded him Quick’s health difficulties could not be managed satisfactorily in prison.
“Although plainly custody will be difficult for him and he will require to be managed nothing has been said to us to suggest that position is any different,” said Lord Kingarth.
Quick committed the sexual abuse of five pupils between 1977 and 1980 while he was a teacher at the fee-paying school.
His counsel, Claire Mitchell, told the appeal court that nothing could be said to minimise the gravity of the offending.
But she argued that because of the current age and physical and mental health of Quick, returning him to prison would be excessive.
Miss Mitchell said one of the staff at the nursing home where Quick lived had described him as “building his own prison within the home”.
“This is a man who has effectively withdrawn from the world. He spends his days alone in his room not communicating with the outside world. He does not receive visitors, apart from one gentleman, and has no contact with children,” she said.
Miss Mitchell added that Quick was a first offender and the crimes were committed “a long number of years ago”.
She said that during his short spell of imprisonment he had been held firstly in a jail hospital wing before being transferred to a cell on protection.
“Because of his physical difficulties he required his meals to be brought to him. He required assistance in and out of bed and help with washing and showering,” she said.
The defence counsel said Quick’s health was affected by depressive moods.
As previously reported in the Advertiser, the parents of a former Dollar Academy pupil – who committed suicide after allegedly suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Quick – are suing the school for £120,000.
John and Noreen Young’s son David took his own life in 2002 at the age of 23.
They claim that David had told a psychiatrist and close friends he had been abused by the teacher at Dollar Academy when he was just 11.
The Youngs claim the school neglected its duty of care by failing to act against the teacher despite knowing about earlier cases of abuse.
The case will be heard in Scotland’s highest court – the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
Quick’s conviction came about after the Youngs enlisted retired detective Les Brown, who tracked down several of the former teacher’s victims from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Quick admitted four charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices involving pupils. The charges related to the abuse suffered by victims tracked down by Mr Brown. They did not relate to the alleged abuse of David Young.
The abuse happened between 1977 and 1981, at Quick’s private residence at the school, McNabb House. All the pupils were aged between 10 and 13 at the time.
When Quick was originally jailed at Alloa Sheriff Court, Sheriff Mackie told him that the offences he had admitted were “an appalling breach of trust”.
The sheriff added, “Your offending has caused harm to your victims impossible to calculate – more profound and more pervasive than any physical injury might be.”
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