A FORMER deputy head at the now-closed Ripon Cathedral Choir School has been jailed for 12 years for historic child sex offences.

Ian David Charles Atkinson, 59, formerly of Staveley, Ripon, was jailed after a six-day trial at Bradford Crown Court.

He was found guilty of six charges of indecent assault on a boy, one charge of inciting a boy to commit an act of gross indecency with him, and two of downloading indecent images of children.

Four of the offences took place in Hampshire, where Atkinson also taught, and the remainder happened in Ripon.

The contact offences occurred in the 1990s and 2000s and the indecent images were discovered in 2015 when officers seized Atkinson’s laptop following his arrest.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and issued with a sexual harm prevention order.

Detective Constable Fiona Ayre said afterwards: “Appallingly, Atkinson used his position of trust to abuse young boys for his own sexual gratification and the sentence reflects the serious and protracted nature of his offending."