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Black Collar Crime: Church Choir Director Robert Kalton Convicted of Sex Crimes

robert kaltonThe Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

Robert Kalton, a British church choir director, was convicted of sexually abusing boys and sentenced to nine years in prison. Kalton previously spent six years in prison for similar crimes.

The BBC reports:

A former church choirmaster has been jailed for sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Robert Kalton, 82, sexually assaulted the children while he was working at a church in Leicestershire and Wiltshire, Leicestershire Police said.

He had moved to live in Portugal after the attacks and was arrested in 2013.

Kalton, of no fixed address, was found guilty of 15 child sex abuse offences at Leicester Crown Court and sentenced to nine years in prison.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for life.

Police said the victims were sexually abused at a church in Melton Mowbray and Trowbridge.

Officers received a report four years ago from a boy who claimed he had been sexually abuse by Kalton when he was 11 and 12 years old.

An investigation found two other victims were abused when they had attended choir practice.

Kalton was found guilty of four counts of gross indecency with a boy under 16 and 11 counts of indecent assault on a male.

Det Con Steve Winterton said: “These awful crimes took place when the victims were young boys.

“They have lived with what happened to them for many years and no doubt the crimes committed on them have affected them ever since.

“All the victims have shown immense courage throughout the investigation and legal proceedings and it’s their perseverance which has resulted in the conviction.”

The Leicester Mercury adds:

Former choirmaster and organist Robert Kalton was extradited from his home in Portugal earlier this year to face charges relating to his abuse of young boys during the seventies and eighties.

He was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Friday after admitting to 15 counts of indecency with a child and indecent assault on a male.

The court heard that Kalton’s crimes were committed against two victims when he was living in Thorpe Arnold, near Melton, and a third young boy when he previously lived in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, said: “They were all boys at the time of the offences when this defendant was a choirmaster.”

He said Kalton seemed to “pay more attention to the boys” and was “very tactile with them” whilst not encouraging girls to join the choir.

Mr Thatcher said that the defendant used the victims’ “keenness to learn” to draw them to his home, which one described as being “like a boys club”.

Kalton also relied on his reputation as a gifted teacher and their parents’ naivety to engineer time alone with the boys and would “groom” them with praise to win their confidence.

The court heard that in each case “congratulatory hugs and kisses” would often lead to intimate touching and sexual activity, however, he added that this did not involve intercourse.

….

In 1988, the defendant was convicted of a serious sexual offence on a boy and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Mr Thatcher said: “These matters, however, did not come to light at the time, the complainants indicating that they would have lied at the time to avoid the embarrassment of revealing what had happened to them.”

….

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