William james vahey biography of christopher

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But, according to a report by Hugh Davies QC – a lawyer who reviewed Southbank’s recruitment of Vahey for Cognita after his death – the school did not look into other jurisdictions where Vahey had worked. There was “a clear pattern of intrinsically inappropriate conduct” sufficient for Vahey to have been stopped, said Hugh Davies QC in his report to parents.

On one rare occasion when Vahey was disciplined for his behaviour – a parent had objected to an inappropriate comment Vahey had made to students – he complained to Terry Hedger, the principal.

Suddenly, a mountain of digital evidence detailing his many abuses was out of his hands.

A few days later, when he didn’t Skype with Jean in London as planned, she called the school to check his whereabouts. One night, when he was about 14, he and several friends settled down to watch a movie in Vahey’s lounge, but found themselves suddenly feeling sleepy and nodding off.

I am assuming I was drugged to get me out of the picture.”

* * *

Incredibly, as Vahey moved from school to school during his four-decade career, it never came to light that he was already a convicted paedophile. But it remains part of a much larger global community of international schools, defined by internationally recognised curriculums, taught in English, to cosmopolitan student bodies.

I had to ask myself, however awful it is, can I live with that?”

Many decided not to find out. For the previous seven months, Vahey had been teaching history at the American Nicaraguan School, one of 193 schools around the world supported by the US government to promote US-style education. Vahey’s short torment since being exposed was over.

“We strongly suspected Bill was drugging us.Vahey would even inspect the boys’ mouths to make sure they had swallowed everything.

Despite their suspicions, John said that the boys did not feel confident about making accusations against Vahey. Looking around the room he noticed he was wearing a different pair of shorts, while his friend was wearing his shorts.

He gave a 13-year old boy a ‘babe magnet award’. Parents now found themselves wrestling with an awful dilemma: would finding out if their child was in Vahey’s photo files trigger trauma where there was none before?

At Southbank International, mourning turned to rage. In Indonesia, he would worship at parents’ churches, in what former colleagues now believe was an attempt to ingratiate himself with them.

We think this is the most marvellous Thanksgiving Day that we could ever imagine!”

“It is with a sense of awe, wonder and joy that I find myself writing to you,” Vahey told colleagues by email on 2 December. Morgan pushed his finger easily into a deep wound in Vahey’s chest and concluded: “cause of death: self-inflicted knife wound to the chest”. What wasn’t clear was the scale of the missed opportunities to stop Vahey far sooner.

Vahey was keen to join her and wrote to Southbank International School for a job, mentioning Jean’s position. The parents of students who are still minors understandably were deeply concerned about their children’s privacy. “My husband didn’t think our son should go, on the basis that you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, and not knowing the severity of what is in the photographs – whether it was full sexual assault, touching or nudity,” one mother told me.