Peter John Howard Webb, 77, retired, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment at Hove Crown Court on Wednesday 9 September, having been convicted after a three-day trial of three counts of indecent assault on a boy then aged between 11 and 12 at Christ’s Hospital School near Horsham in the early 1970s, while Webb was a teacher there and the boy was a pupil there.
The prosecution, authorised by the CPS, followed an investigation by detectives from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit following a report received for the first time in August 2019.
The court heard that Webb has already been given sentences totalling seven years, imposed in 2015 and 2017, for a series of indecent assaults on five other boys at the same school between 1974 and 1984, while a woodwork teacher and housemaster there. He was still a serving prisoner at the time of this latest trial.
Webb is already a registered sex offender for life and is still subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) imposed in 2017, to last until further court order, severely restricting his access to young people.
Detective Sergeant Rebecca Wilde of the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit said; “This is the third time that Webb has faced justice, as his victims from so many years ago have gradually found the strength to come forward and support our investigations.
“He had systematically targeted this vulnerable young boy, as he had all the others, while he was in a position of authority and trust, for his own sexual gratification.
“He made the boy feel special, establishing in effect a secret relationship with him over many months. To this day the victim remembers, as well as the distressing events, the distinctive aroma of stale alcohol and tobacco that he associates with Webb.
“This is another example of the way in which we will always follow up such reports, no matter how long ago the events are said to have occurred, to support victims and seek justice for them wherever possible.
“If you have been a victim, or know of someone who has, there is no need to suffer in silence. Contact us at any time online or by calling 101, and arrange to talk in confidence to experienced investigators.”
Sussex Police had full co-operation from management at the School during the investigation. Detectives emphasise that the events in this case occurred more than 45 years ago and have no relation to the current or recent management of the school and its pupils.
