Harrowing details of the abuse carried out on young boys by a former teacher at a London private school were revealed yesterday in a document released by United States authorities, as distraught parents waited to discover whether their children were involved.
William Vahey, 64, a convicted paedophile, was able to drug and abuse up to 60 boys aged between 12 and 14 at London's Southbank International School (SIS).
A US citizen, Vahey killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room last month, two days after the FBI filed a warrant asking for permission to formally search a USB drive which he used to store images of his crimes.
Vahey worked as a history and geography teacher at SIS from 2009 to 2013. Since 1972 he was employed by nine other international schools and US authorities fear he may have abused many other boys. The USB drive shows he had at least 90 victims since 2008 alone, and as he appears to have drugged them with sleeping pills, some may not even be aware that they were abused.
According to the FBI search warrant, Vahey's crimes were only discovered last month while he was teaching at the American Nicaraguan School in Managua, which hired him after he left SIS.
A maid employed to clean his apartment stole the USB stick and gave it to the school after discovering it contained explicit images of teenage boys, arranged under folders entitled Panama Trip, Costa Rica Trip and Basketball Trip.
When an employee at the school reviewed the contents of the drive and confronted Vahey, he told them: "I was molested as a boy. That is why I do this. I have been doing this my whole life."
He added that he never hurt any of the boys and that they did not know what had happened to them as they were completely asleep, the document says.
- The Independent