Retired PE Teacher, 91, Becomes Oldest UK Person Jailed For First Time, For Sex Attacks On Boys In The 1950s, 60s And 70s

Marcus Marcussen from Rochford, Worcestershire, UK. Photo: Henry Nichols/Newstream

A Briton, 91-year-old former teacher, has become the oldest person to be sent to prison for the first time after he was jailed for carrying out a string of sex attacks on 14 boys.

The retired PE teacher and youth club volunteer was convicted of 25 counts of indecent assault earlier this week after a three-week trial. Marcussen had denied committing the offences against pupils at Ilmington Road comprehensive school in Weoley Castle, Birmingham, Daily Mail reports.

Marcus Marcussen remained apparently unmoved in the dock as a judge said the offences, committed between 1957 and 1978, had been 'tinged with sadism'.

Marcussen, who has no previous convictions, was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for nine years for the abuse carried out over three decades.

Sentencing Marcussen, who made notes of his sentences on each of the 25 counts, Judge Nicholas Webb told the sex offender: 'You retain an acute intelligence and although you are physically frail, forty or fifty years ago I am sure you were a formidable presence in the classroom.

'Standards of discipline were different then - corporal punishment was allowed - but your regime was tinged with sadism towards pupils.'

Pointing out that at least one victim had since attempted suicide, while another was caned by a headmaster after making a complaint of sexual abuse, the judge told Marcussen: 'Every one of the witnesses remembered you and your deeds. Some have come to terms with their experiences better than others. However, all of the men who gave evidence, some now in their sixties and one or two in their seventies, have been affected for the worse by their experiences literally at your hands.'

Condemning Marcussen for creating an atmosphere of fear sufficient to quell all but the most assertive of boys, Judge Webb added the victims had been 'in effect groomed' while being being subject to frequent, and sometimes weekly, offending.

Detectives arrested Marcussen - who used a whale bone to strike and intimidate pupils - after a victim reported the historical abuse in 2012.