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Former school owner convicted of two historic child cruelty charges

Offences date back to 1970s and 80s

A Douglas man who owned a South Cumbria boarding school has been convicted of two child cruelty and assault charges and acquitted of six others.

Seventy-seven year-old Derrick Cooper of Hillberry Green was found guilty of two offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

He ran Underley Hall in Kirkby Lonsdale for more than two decades and went on trial alongside three former colleagues, all accused of assaulting pupils.

 

They were all found not guilty.

 

Deliberations by jurors at Carlisle Crown Court lasted six days and more than 24 hours.

 

Cooper was convicted on a majority verdict of assaulting one pupil, who told jurors how the owner had ‘head-butted’ him, kicked him ‘around the body’, and ‘tried to put his fingers’ in his eyes.

 

He was also found guilty, unanimously, of cruelty towards a second child. That former pupil told the jury he was subjected to violence in a dining hall which left him bloodied; and forced to wear only a towel to sleep in a below-freezing corridor.

 

Jurors found Cooper not guilty of alleged assaults on three boys and acquitted him on a further charge alleging cruelty towards another youngster.

 

After learning that jurors were unable to reach verdicts on a further two assault allegation charges, they were discharged by Judge James Adkin.

 

Cooper will be sentenced at the crown court on April 26.

 

In the meantime he has been granted bail after Judge Adkin said ‘all options’ would be open at next month’s hearing.

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