A FORMER school teacher has been jailed for historical sexual offences.

Phillip Dyke, of High Street, Bury, admitted charges relating to seven boys at Hailey Hall, a Hertfordshire boarding school for children aged 11-16 with behavioural problems, over an eight-year period from 1978.

At St Albans Crown Court on Thursday, the 62-year-old was jailed for eight years for buggery, indecent assault, gross indecency and taking an indecent photograph.

Judge Martin Griffith said: “The recurring aggravated feature is that you were a teacher employed to look after and assist obviously troubled young men.

“You abused the trust placed in you by the school giving you accommodation near the dormitory.

“You targeted vulnerable victims. There were multiple victims and repeated assaults over the years.”

Dyke was banned from working with children and ordered to stay on the Sex Offenders Register for life.