Andrew Soper, 74, allegedly molested 10 pupils during his time as headmaster and senior priest at fee-paying St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London in the 1970s and 80s.
Prosecutor Gillian Etherton QC quizzed the defendant on the “extraordinary” similarities between some of the alleged victims’ stories.
They claimed Soper “searched them for a book under the ruse of patting to touch their bottom” and offered three strokes of the cane instead of six “severe lashes” if they took their trousers and pants down.
The defendant accepted he had checked boys for “padding” and had changed his account to police on “calmer recollection” of events of some 30 years ago.
But he denied bargaining over the cane, saying: “I never gave that sort of an option because I would never give a boy six strokes of the cane, that’s far too much.
“I normally gave two or three.”
He told jurors incidents had been interpreted in a “sexual way” against a “tsunami of media attention as I am named fairly frequently”.
He cited a “backdrop of heavy media attention for the last 10 years” including a blog and “victim” discussion group, documentaries on Channel 4, Channel 5, Panorama, and news articles naming him and the school.
He said: “Against all that you have then got money, of course, which is a great incentive and the more elaborate the story, the more money you get.”
He went on: “I think, if I’m right, that seven out of 10 complainants left St Benedict’s before they completed their…
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