Monster in the Classroom ; He Was a Respected Headmaster Who Befriended a Woman Teacher and Her Twin Sons. So Genuine Did He Seem That She Even Let the Boys Stay at His House. Then One Day the Police Came Knocking at Her Door . . .

Daily Mail › May 20, 2004

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Summary

AS SOON as his name was mentioned by the two police officers sitting in her lounge, Marilyn Hawes went numb. As they explained that Jeffrey Carney, a close friend and confidant, was being investigated for the abuse of young boys going back over a period of 30 years, she immediately thought of the summers when he'd taken her twin boys surfing in Cornwall.

Then there were the many gifts and CDs, the play fights, the tickling - all of which appeared so innocent at the time but now seemed so incredibly sinister.

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Monster in the Classroom ; He Was a Respected Headmaster Who Befriended a Woman Teacher and Her Twin Sons. So Genuine Did He Seem That She Even Let the Boys Stay at His House. Then One Day the Police Came Knocking at Her Door . . .

Her 15-year-old sons Michael and Peter were at school but the officers said they wanted to talk to them on their return. They suspected that the boys had been 'groomed' by Carney, and at first Marilyn struggled to comprehend what they were saying.

Was this really Jeffrey they were talking about, the churchgoing headteacher of her children's primary school? The close friend who had encouraged her to realise her dream of becoming a music teacher, who had provided a shoulder to cry on when her first marriage crumbled?

'My whole body was numb with shock and I felt sick,' says the mother of four in ...

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