The 77-year-old former music teacher, taxi driver and church volunteer smiled at the public gallery and press bench – where at least one of his victims was sitting – as he entered court yesterday.
The Inferior Number heard how Bacon satisfied his ‘spanking fetish’ by slapping, rubbing and sniffing children’s backsides in a sound-proofed music room at St Helier Boys’ School, later known as d’Hautrée. He was yesterday jailed for two years after admitting five counts of indecent assault against four victims dating back to the 1970s and 80s.
The defendant was jailed in 2017 after being found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and one count of procuring an act of gross indecency against six boys at the same school. He remains in jail for those offences and was not due to be released until July next year. His latest prison term will begin after that.
Delivering the court’s sentence, Commissioner Sir Michael Birt said: ‘As with previous offences this was a gross betrayal of trust. You were a teacher and the boys were entrusted to your care. It is clear that two of the victims have been severely psychologically affected and the third says he lost his trust in teachers as a result of what you did, which affected his education.’
Outlining the case, Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, said Bacon would lure his victims into a sound-proofed music room under the guise of administering corporal punishment. Once inside the room, the court heard, he would pull down the boys’ trousers and underwear and hit, caress or sniff their backsides. Some of the victims, it was heard, said they witnessed Bacon getting sexual gratification from his acts.
One victim said that when he realised Bacon was being perverted in his acts, it ‘twisted his mind’. A statement read out in court said: ‘I did not listen to teachers any more. I did not trust teachers. I lost interest in school and was always mucking about. I left school with no qualifications. I feel as if he has taken away all my choices in life.’
Advocate Pedley also told the court that Bacon had lost his enhanced-prisoner status last year after newspaper clippings of ‘unrelated children’ were found in his cell. Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, argued that jailing his client for a further two years was a disproportionate punishment as, had all his offending come to light at the same time, the additional counts would not have carried such weight.
He also stressed that Bacon had not reoffended since the 1980s, was known as a ‘kind man’ by his friends and that his partner was suffering from health problems.
Jurats Anthony Olsen and Pamela Pitman were sitting.
