London: A paedophile teacher abused up to 60 boys at a leading private school after plying them with Oreo cookies laced with sleeping pills, it was claimed yesterday.
William Vahey, 64, is said to have held a ‘cookie race’ at bedtime in which children as young as 10 were encouraged to eat as many as they could, unaware they had been drugged. Once the pupils passed out, some were sexually assaulted.
Details of the calculating schemes of the predator emerged as the extent of his offending became clear Saturday.
FBI investigators said more than 100 potential victims had come forward since news broke yesterday that the married American had taken pictures of himself attacking up to 60 sleeping students from the elite Southbank International School in Westminster during class trips abroad between 2009 and 2013.
The sickening images depicted children aged ten to 14 at the international school, where he taught history and geography and led trips to Jordan, Nepal and Venezuela.
Another 30 children, who also appeared to be unconscious or asleep when the assaults took place, were pictured from other schools he worked in during a 40-year career spent teaching at 10 American international schools in nine countries.
Southbank International School, which is favoured by diplomats and foreign executives, has 758 pupils and charges fees of GBP25,000 a year.
Vahey committed suicide at a motel in the US last month as the FBI were poised to investigate a USB memory stick containing the graphic images of naked children dating back to 2008.
The father of two plunged a knife into his chest two days after confessing that he had abused boys throughout his life using sleeping pills.
Police later removed items from his £1.8million (Dh11 million) apartment in Maida Vale, west London, where he is alleged to have kept large amounts of sleeping pills.
On Saturday a British mother of two, whose teenage sons went on seven school trips with Vahey, said he used to hand out Oreo cookies and tell pupils that they could be the lead character in his bedtime story if they won the cookie race.
The mother, who did not wish to be identified, said he “groomed” pupils and parents: “The boys would sit around and were handed Oreos. He would tell them to go and he would drop his hand to start the race.
“Then the first one who had the Oreo, the higher up they would be in the story and so on. He would have been able to split the Oreos apart, ground up the stuff and sprinkle it in the middle.” The mother was once a friend of Vahey and his wife Jean, 66, who is the executive director of the European Council of International Schools. For how long, I wonder?
An FBI affidavit obtained by the Daily Mail showed how he catalogued the abuse by time and location in folders on a USB memory stick entitled “Panama trip”, “Costa Rica trip” and “Basketball trip” and “Spring 2013”.
The document says: “These images depict minor males in various states of undress... The minor males appear to be asleep, unconscious or possibly drugged.”
Vahey, who left Southbank International last year, was only caught after a housekeeper at a school he moved to in Nicaragua stole a memory stick containing the vile images.
She was sacked but later passed the USB stick to administrators at the American School in Managua, who dismissed Vahey after recognising his hand in the images.
In 1970, while studying for a teaching degree, Vahey was jailed for 90 days after pleading guilty to molesting boys at a swimming pool where he was working as an instructor in California.
He was required to register as a sex offender for life, but after graduating from college in 1972 failed to sign the register. Can't believe it's a voluntary thing.
In 2010 an inspection report had warned of a weakness in staff vetting measures at Southbank International, but Sir Chris Woodhead, chairman of the governors said that it was “irrelevant” in Vahey’s case as he was not on the sex offender’s register.
Sir Chris said there had never been a complaint against Vahey, although there was one incident where a boy was ill on a trip and Vahey took the boy into his room to look after him. A school investigation subsequently found “nothing untoward”.
William Vahey, 64, is said to have held a ‘cookie race’ at bedtime in which children as young as 10 were encouraged to eat as many as they could, unaware they had been drugged. Once the pupils passed out, some were sexually assaulted.
Details of the calculating schemes of the predator emerged as the extent of his offending became clear Saturday.
FBI investigators said more than 100 potential victims had come forward since news broke yesterday that the married American had taken pictures of himself attacking up to 60 sleeping students from the elite Southbank International School in Westminster during class trips abroad between 2009 and 2013.
The sickening images depicted children aged ten to 14 at the international school, where he taught history and geography and led trips to Jordan, Nepal and Venezuela.
Another 30 children, who also appeared to be unconscious or asleep when the assaults took place, were pictured from other schools he worked in during a 40-year career spent teaching at 10 American international schools in nine countries.
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| Southbank Int'l School |
Vahey committed suicide at a motel in the US last month as the FBI were poised to investigate a USB memory stick containing the graphic images of naked children dating back to 2008.
The father of two plunged a knife into his chest two days after confessing that he had abused boys throughout his life using sleeping pills.
Police later removed items from his £1.8million (Dh11 million) apartment in Maida Vale, west London, where he is alleged to have kept large amounts of sleeping pills.
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| Vahey 1986 |
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| Vahey 2013 and 2004 |
The mother, who did not wish to be identified, said he “groomed” pupils and parents: “The boys would sit around and were handed Oreos. He would tell them to go and he would drop his hand to start the race.
“Then the first one who had the Oreo, the higher up they would be in the story and so on. He would have been able to split the Oreos apart, ground up the stuff and sprinkle it in the middle.” The mother was once a friend of Vahey and his wife Jean, 66, who is the executive director of the European Council of International Schools. For how long, I wonder?
An FBI affidavit obtained by the Daily Mail showed how he catalogued the abuse by time and location in folders on a USB memory stick entitled “Panama trip”, “Costa Rica trip” and “Basketball trip” and “Spring 2013”.
The document says: “These images depict minor males in various states of undress... The minor males appear to be asleep, unconscious or possibly drugged.”
Vahey, who left Southbank International last year, was only caught after a housekeeper at a school he moved to in Nicaragua stole a memory stick containing the vile images.
She was sacked but later passed the USB stick to administrators at the American School in Managua, who dismissed Vahey after recognising his hand in the images.
In 1970, while studying for a teaching degree, Vahey was jailed for 90 days after pleading guilty to molesting boys at a swimming pool where he was working as an instructor in California.
He was required to register as a sex offender for life, but after graduating from college in 1972 failed to sign the register. Can't believe it's a voluntary thing.
In 2010 an inspection report had warned of a weakness in staff vetting measures at Southbank International, but Sir Chris Woodhead, chairman of the governors said that it was “irrelevant” in Vahey’s case as he was not on the sex offender’s register.
Sir Chris said there had never been a complaint against Vahey, although there was one incident where a boy was ill on a trip and Vahey took the boy into his room to look after him. A school investigation subsequently found “nothing untoward”.
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