A former music teacher at a top Aberdeen private school has been cleared of allegations that he sexually assaulted two of his pupils through inappropriate embraces.
Peter Parfitt was accused of sexually assaulting the pair while the former director of music worked at St Margaret’s School for Girls.
The 56-year-old joined the Albyn Place school in 2007 but had his contract terminated after a “substantial internal investigation” in April 2022.
He was alleged to have committed the offences on dates between 2012 and 2021.
He denied the charges and a sheriff has deemed that the Crown failed to prove there was a sexual nature to his touching or a clear lack of consent from the girls.
Mr Parfitt’s defence agent David Moggach put forward the submission that there was no case to answer on day two of the trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
‘They were congratulatory hugs’
The advocate claimed that a conviction could not be achieved since there was no evidence from both the girls that these hugs were sexual or against their wishes.
“Whether it was an appropriate thing for a teacher to do is open to question,” Mr Moggach said.
“But that does not take away the fact that Mr Parfitt was not doing it in a sexual way or for sexual gratification. He was doing it to congratulate a pupil who had performed well and he was doing that as a teacher.”
Fiscal depute Anne MacDonald, leading the Crown evidence, argued it was simply not appropriate for a teacher to hug a pupil.
She added: “It’s sexual because there is no need to congratulate using two hands on a child’s body and a closeness of bodies. One can congratulate by the shaking of hands or a pat on the shoulder.”
Case thrown out of court
However Sheriff Eric Brown agreed there was no case to answer and Mr Parfitt was cleared of both charges.
The court earlier heard evidence from his alleged victims who spoke of receiving multiple private hugs when alone together.
One of them said she didn’t report the physical contact to the oldest all-through girls’ school in Scotland because she “feared a backlash”.
One of the complainers – a teenager – spoke via video link of Mr Parfitt hugging her “really tight” in a “large embrace” that saw his arms wrapped fully around her and his hands laid on her rib cage.
She said the first time it happened, Mr Parfitt told her, “I am going to miss you” before crying on her shoulders in the music room as the school prepared to break for a Covid lockdown.
St Margaret’s pupils felt they couldn’t speak out
“As he hugged me, he was crying,” she told the court. “I could feel his shoulders moving up and down because of how much he was crying.
“I felt helpless and like he completely took advantage of my personal space and the situation I was in.”
She said the hug lasted around seven seconds, happened when they were alone and left her feeling so uncomfortable that she immediately left the room and ran, crying, to her friend.
She told of two further occasions where he “properly wrapped his whole arms” around her.
“I didn’t like the hug,” she said. “I felt very uncomfortable as if my personal space had been abused a little bit.”
The teenager said she didn’t report the incidents straight away because she felt she “couldn’t speak”.
She said: “My issue was, I didn’t feel I could tell many people because I didn’t want there to be a backlash and then for it to be completely dismissed and for it then to affect my grade.”
The teenager also said she felt that “nothing she did could annoy him” and she got preferential treatment from him.
A second former pupil told the court that she was made to feel special by her teacher and that she “didn’t consider the hugs to be unusual at the time”.
She said she received between five and seven private hugs from Mr Parfitt when she was aged between 14 and 18, of which three or four happened when they were alone.
In her evidence, she explained how she “categorised the hugs” into those that happened in public at places such as St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen Arts Centre and the Music Hall, and those that happened in private at the school.
“I had a great deal of respect and admiration for him,” she said. “At that time and age, I wanted that relationship with him. A close relationship.
“For me, as a musician and a pupil, it made me feel very comforted.”
History of posts at different schools
Mr Parfitt, formerly of Carmont Cottages in Drumlithie but now living in Durham, was cleared of the charges by Sheriff Brown.
He became musical director of the Aberdeen Bach Choir (ABC) in 2010 having previously held teaching posts in Winchester and director of music positions at schools in Hampshire, London and East Sussex.
He has also directed a number of choral and operatic societies and appeared with many others as a soloist.
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