'My abuser said nobody would love me - now he is jailed'

David Pickthall was once regarded as a respected, enthusiastic and kind music teacher and choirmaster who had an extensive career in film and TV.

He was appointed an MBE in 2015 for services to education and charity and was described as a "pillar for the music community in Brentwood" at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The 66 year-old, of Ingrave Road, Brentwood, Essex, was sentenced on Monday to 12 years in prison with a four-year extended licence period, after he admitted 29 counts of child sexual offences against 19 people over 40 years.

Mark, a survivor of Pickthall's abuse and the first person to report his experiences to the police in 2021, said: "Behind private doors - I don't use this word lightly - he was a monster."

Warning: This article features themes of child sexual abuse

Pickthall was an accomplished musician, and throughout his career he worked in TV and film, conducting music on Tracy Beaker: The Movie of Me in 2004 and supervising the music for Julian Fellowes' A Most Mysterious Murder in 2005. He also worked as the musical arranger for Channel Four's The Paul O'Grady Show.

In the 1980s Mark, which is not his real name, was a talented student who had a flair for music. He used to have one-to-one piano lessons.

He said Pickthall would play at a number of concerts: "He was such a good musician, the performances were a great success.

"At the end of it, he would turn around and the audience would stand up, give him a huge round of applause and he would bow and soak up all of this public adoration."

Yet Pickthall had abused Mark from when he was aged 12 to 16.

He said the abuse initially started with the former teacher tapping Mark on the back of his hand when he made a mistake during his lessons. But after six months, Pickthall started to touch his genitals under his clothes.

Mark said: "I was just a 12-year-old boy and he was a relatively famous and accomplished musician."

During his victim impact statement, Mark called Pickthall a "compulsive and life-long paedophile".

"Nobody will ever love you" were just some of the words that have been haunting Mark for 40 years.

"Pickthall said 'you're the only person I've met that is skinnier than me, nobody will ever find you attractive or love you so you should be grateful for the attention you're getting from me', and that has just stuck with me right up until today."

Mark said the abuse stopped when he quit music aged 16, but he said he spent a lot of his adult life introverted and wary of "the damage adults can do".

"I felt like I would never form a successful relationship with anybody."

However, Mark married the love of his life and became a father.

Mark said the birth of his child gave him courage in 2021 to report Pickthall to the police and hoped it would protect other children.

At his sentencing, Mark said he felt as though he had gained some justice.

Edward, which is not his real name, said he met Pickthall when he was three years old and the abuse started when he was a pupil aged about 12 or 13.

"I very much did see him as a friend, he was someone who I went round to quite often on a Saturday night.

"We would have pizza and I remember I would drink a lot of whisky there and then he would take me home on the Sunday and stay for Sunday lunch, that was the level of confidence he had."

Edward said: "You would go round there and he would put pornography on the TV and then sit next to you and then used to feel if you were aroused by watching it, which was always a bit uncomfortable."

Edward said he saw Pickthall put his hands down the pants of some of the other boys and called it a "tickle spot".

"He did it once to me and I hit him."

"[It's] very strange to look back because it is so incredibly wrong. Until you view it with adult eyes, you don't necessarily see that."

Edward said he was always academic and had gone on to have a successful career and a family of his own.

He said Essex Police contacted him in 2021.

"Some of the reasons I hadn't come forward, with all of this type of grooming is that he was some type of friend. So it is really weird to start telling tales on a friend.

"But then you review all of this with the mind of an adult and you realise that he was anything but a friend."

Det Con Chelsie Stamford of Essex Police has been working on the investigation since October 2021 and said that Pickthall had been offending up until he was arrested later that year.

As the years went on, she added, Pickthall had started to use social media to abuse young boys.

She said: "I think this case has just unveiled the tip of the iceberg in terms of Pickthall's offending."

Essex Police has asked anyone who might be able to help with its ongoing investigation to get in contact.

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