Child sex victims of Wallace and Gromit musician may be 'tip of the iceberg', says detective

Child sex offences committed by a musician who worked on films including Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers and 28 Days Later may be "the tip of the iceberg", a detective has said.

Former teacher and choirmaster David Pickthall admitted 29 child sex offences against 19 people, spanning more than 40 years, at an earlier hearing at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

He was jailed for 12 years at Chelmsford Crown Court for the crimes, committed between 1980 and 2021 in Brentwood in Essex and Upminster in east London.

The 66-year-old, who was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for his services to education and charity, was a respected figure who had worked on a number of TV and film projects.

He worked on the 1993 stop-motion animated short film Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, with his role described as the “musical voice” of villainous penguin Feathers McGraw.

Pickthall, of Ingrave Road, Brentwood, Essex, also worked on the post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later and with a number of philharmonic orchestras.

Det Con Chelsie Stamford said the 19 victims may be the “tip of the iceberg” and she urged any further victims to contact police.

“I do think he probably thought he was untouchable because the offences spanned more than four decades and he got away with it for that amount of time,” she said.

“I think that perhaps because he had the title of an MBE and had worked on some TV and film projects, perhaps he thought no one would suspect someone such as him would be capable of these crimes.

“But, of course, on the contrary, the crimes he committed were horrifying.”

One of his victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and is using the pseudonym Edward, said Pickthall “would always have boys over to stay”.

“He used to do this thing where he would essentially start play-fighting and tickling but the tickling would then always involve what he used to refer to as a tickle spot which was basically him getting his hand down your trousers,” said Edward, who was a secondary school pupil at the time.

Edward, who is now aged in his late 30s, said Pickthall “only tried with me once… because I hit him when that happened, but I did see him do it on other occasions to other boys”.

He said Pickthall, who had been his music teacher, “would put pornography on to watch” and “when you stayed, his spare room was kitted out with a VCR and a TV”.

He said boys would be “plied with alcohol” and were “drinking beer, drinking whisky, not a bit, a lot” when they stayed at his house.

“It’s quite shocking looking back as an adult,” he said, adding that he started to stay over from around the age of 12.

Edward said Pickthall would give opportunities to boys but “girls never really got given any opportunities”, adding: “It’s like well, that was all just part of the grooming then wasn’t it.”

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