A SCOTS drumming instructor has been removed from the care register after hitting teenage girls’ on the buttocks with drumsticks and ‘grooming’ a pupil, 17.
James Clark, known as ‘Drummie’, was removed from the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) care register yesterday after being jailed for the offences last year.
The 56-year-old from Edinburgh sexually assaulted seven teenage girls, aged between 13 to 18, over the course of around eight years whilst working as a drumming tutor.
He was found to have struck two female students on the buttocks on various occasions between 2011 and 2018 whilst employed at a private Perthshire school.
The boarding school drumming instructor was also found to have touched multiple students on their buttocks, cuddled them and made repeated sexual remarks.
During an “illicit affair” with a 17-year-old pupil, activities ranged from kissing in a cupboard to oral sex in the bagpipe store.
In 2019 the girl told her headmaster that Clark had “abused” her in his car, the band hut, her boarding house, the children’s tuck cupboard and the junior common room.
One pupil revealed how she had been left feeling “violated” by Clark after he 6ft 2in man repeatedly struck her on the bottom and once even bruised her.
She added that Clark “smacked her on the bum pretty much all the time” during a band trip to Switzerland in 2015 when she was in S6.
Another pupil, who was 16 at the time, revealed how Clark told her “that the two of us should have children together”.
Clark, a former chief pipe and drum instructor for the British Army, was found guilty of common assault, breach of trust and communicating indecency in September last year.
He was found sentenced to a year and nine months in prison at Falkirk Sheriff Court in November for the offences.
Clark, an assistant housemaster at the private school, was also a registered social service worker which enabled him to work in residential school care accommodation.
Following his conviction, the SSSC decided to remove Clark from the register on Sunday after finding his fitness to practise was impaired.
They said: “You have been convicted of a number of very serious sexual offences involving young people who were in your care at the relevant times.
“Behaving in a sexually abusive manner towards young people in your care is conduct that is fundamentally incompatible with professional registration, and violates fundamental tenets of the social services profession.
“It is behaviour that amounts to a fundamental abuse of trust, which may have caused physical and psychological harm to your victims.”
The SSSC ruled that the former instructor had not shown any insight or regret into his actions, noting that he hasn’t apologies to his victims.
On making their decision they said: “The SSSC considers a removal order is the most appropriate sanction as it is both necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession.
“It is the only appropriate sanction in this case.
“While you were entitled to maintain not guilty pleas at trial, after your conviction you have not shown any remorse or insight and have not provided any meaningful comments to the SSSC.
“The behaviour in question involves extremely serious abuses of trust in that you engaged in sexual activity with young people under the age of 18 who you were trusted to provide care and support to in the role that you were registered with the SSSC to carry out.
“There are significant public protection risks associated with your conduct. As noted above, you placed young people in your care at a significant risk of physical and emotional harm.
“The risk of repetition appears to be high. It is necessary to take action in this case to protect the public.”
