Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Release point is at two years.

They have a special unit for older sex offenders.

He is in the register for life.

I’ve just unlocked this topic. 4 years is good news....although sad we have to add yet another name to the CH list of shame.

If justice has been done, one has no choice but to approve, because justice is of paramount importance.

But let’s not forget that in many ways Roger Martin was a very sound man who had a positive impact on many young lives over several decades. That can never be erased. Every word of the ‘Roger Martin [Still Looking]’ thread still stands as valid, in spite of making for very melancholy reading now. viewtopic.php?t=130

Such a great shame that the story had to end like this. But then if you dig your own grave, you can’t exactly complain if you end up being buried in it forty-odd years later, I suppose. How very, very unfortunate it all is though, not to mention deeply painful for everyone concerned.

It goes without saying that our sympathies must be with the victim first and foremost, and with all those other known and unknown victims of such offences scattered across Britain and beyond. I begin to marvel at the fact of my having reached the age of sixty relatively unscathed. I just hope I don’t end up being abused in a care home thirty years hence, if care homes still exist then, or being abused in a ditch if they don’t.

Hell, handcart, etcetera, etcetera.

AMP wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:26 pm https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 82885.html

Thanks for the link AMP.

A good updating journalist report.

We now all await to see if the skeleton cupboard door will creak open again.

J.R. wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:56 pm

AMP wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:26 pm https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 82885.html

Thanks for the link AMP.

A good updating journalist report.

We now all await to see if the skeleton cupboard door will creak open again.

You're welcome JR.

Just thinking a little more on what I know and what certain people have told me, I don't think that cupboard door needs any oil. It definitely won't squeak if opened again soon.

richardb wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:01 pm Release point is at two years.

They have a special unit for older sex offenders.

He is in the register for life.

Do you know which prison that is attached to?

Or are there several?

HMP Doncaster has a very high proportion of sex offenders - deliberately done to reduce violence

I am very saddened by this. Martin never taught me and retired soon after I started at ch but he was always well regarded; I wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg with him though.

Just a brief query; the boy he abused was 10 - but there weren’t any 10 year olds at CH surely at that time, the prep school having closed 10 years previously...

I joined aged 10 in 1985....so there are often some who are very young for their year. I skipped a year of primary school..... so maybe the victim did the same?

Spoonbill wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 4:38 pm If justice has been done, one has no choice but to approve, because justice is of paramount importance.

But let’s not forget that in many ways Roger Martin was a very sound man who had a positive impact on many young lives over several decades. That can never be erased. Every word of the ‘Roger Martin [Still Looking]’ thread still stands as valid, in spite of making for very melancholy reading now. viewtopic.php?t=130

It’s a harsh illustration of how the world isn’t made up of just good and bad people, that a teacher can do so much good for one individual and yet cause horrendous damage to the another. It makes it all so much more complicated and painful.

jtaylor wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 5:42 pm I joined aged 10 in 1985....so there are often some who are very young for their year. I skipped a year of primary school..... so maybe the victim did the same?

Yes, that makes sense; there were a couple on my year too

Thoughts go out to the victim who - after 43 years - can take comfort from knowing that he has at last been believed.

I'm finding this the most difficult conviction of all to deal with. Up until now, those found guilty have ranged from the not especially likeable to the downright creepy. But lots of former Barnes A boys will remember Roger Martin with very great fondness, both as a good housemaster (broadly speaking) and as a kindly man who bothered to listen to what his charges had to say and to try to understand them. Boys who were taught by him likewise remember him fondly as a very good teacher and as a fairminded authority figure who was respected by all in spite of being relatively easygoing. He was the sort of master with whom Old Blues kept in touch after leaving school.

But he did what he did.

Human beings never cease to confound me.

Can anyone confirm what he was charged with and convicted for...?