It’s only society that thinks it’s wrong

It’s only society that thinks it’s wrong.”Ms Stansfield said: “Walker had his favourites who were either in, or out. One victim recalls Mr Walker being superficially friendly and having favourite pupils. Others he used to bully and humiliate.”Some of his victims were in court to hear Walker admit 35 counts of indecency between 1976 and 1989 at an Oxfordshire primary school, which cannot be named for legal reasons.Testaments from some of his victims read to the court said they had suffered prolonged psychological damage from his abuse. One victim said he had been assaulted at least 30 times by his teacher, who had told him to say nothing.Walker had been reported to the education authority by the anonymous letter in 1989, detailing claims of sexual abuse.In the same year, Walker left the school after 15 years’ service without explanation, and took a job in the independent sector. A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said the education authority was unaware of any investigation into Walker’s conduct after the letter.John Mitchell, assistant to the chief education officer at the county council, said the authorities were “unfamiliar” with the case, and teacher records were destroyed after three years and one term.Alison Jones, the headteacher of the Rye St Antony School in Oxford, where Walker worked from September 1989 to November 2000, said she was “extremely shocked and saddened” by the revelations. She said the school had found nothing untoward in the checks on him with the Department for Education and added: “We are confident none of our pupils have been assaulted by him.”She said the “extremely competent and well-respected” junior maths and science teacher resigned after 11 years in November 2000 when police started their investigation.Walker, who has been remanded in custody until a hearing in April at which he will be sentenced, denied a further 20 charges of indecent assault and indecency with a child.

The trial judge ordered these to lie on file.Sentencing was adjourned until 5 April at Reading Crown Court.. British universities will demand changes to the Government’s new Export Control Bill so they can assure explicit protection for academic freedom. It warned that certain parts of the Bill were so broadly worded that “essentially all of science and technology falls into it” – meaning that the Government could suppress scientific work before it appeared, and limit communication about it.A spokesman for Universities UK (UUK) said: “Academics consider the option of publishing new research to be a basic freedom, and there is a fear that the new Bill will infringe this freedom.”The Bill, which revises the 1939 Export Control Act, sets new rules on what items can require export licences from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The list includes “intangibles” such as software and scientific knowledgeUp until now, export controls applied only to physical goods, and not apply to non-physical means of sending information, including e-mails.A spokesman for the DTI said it would oppose the universities and their challenge. “We cannot see how any organisation can seriously say the Government should not have the power to control exports who might assist in acts of, for example, terrorism.” The department cited an example that the head of the Iraqi Biological Weapons unit gained a PhD – in plant poisons – from the University of East Anglia.The Bill is in two parts: primary legislation, which provides a framework of powers for the Secretary of State over export control; and the secondary legislation, which states what goods those controls apply to.The primary legislation also includes clauses that could prevent publication of some scientific work deemed sensitive. While the DTI insists the secondary legislation – which has yet to be drafted or presented to Parliament – will contain exclusions, UUK is concerned they will be insufficient.The UUK spokesman said: “The option of guaranteeing academic freedom in secondary legislation, although helpful, [is] a second-best option. Universities UK still views the primary legislation as the best place to enshrine those freedoms.”The primary legislation returns to the Lords on 4 March, when it will be discussed in committee.

The full public consultation on the secondary legislation will be launched in the spring. The DTI said: “We very much want academics to be involved and to be aware of that, and to help us by supplying their opinions”.The restrictions in the legislation could also catch out universities in other ways. Foreign nationals who are to be taught “sensitive” subjects are supposed to have their names given to the DTI under a “voluntary vetting” scheme in the new laws. UUK fears that would become compulsory in those “sensitive” subjects.Professor Ross Anderson, of Cambridge University, said: “Two of my [foreign] research students use a focused ion beam workstation to modify semiconductor chips This machine is export controlled. What that means is the university has to get approval to buy one, and again several years later when we dispose of it. In future, we may need individual licences for my students to use it.”The DTI responded by saying it was “ridiculous” to suggest foreign students would require licences.