Former pupil tells of music teacher sex abuse

A woman who claims she was raped more than 30 years ago by a former musical director of Chetham's School in Manchester said she now realised she was in the hands of a paedophile, a jury heard today.

Michael Brewer, 67, is accused of committing a string of indecent assaults against her while she was a pupil at the prestigious school.

He is also charged with raping her at the age of 18 in the presence of his ex-wife, Hilary Kay Brewer, 67, who was said to have found out about their affair and wanted to see them having sex.

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, the alleged victim detailed how their relationship progressed at the age of 14 from hugs in his school office to kisses, intimate touching and then full sex.

She said: "Very quickly Mike would tell me that I bewitched him. That he found me irresistible, that he found me wise and wonderful, hugely talented and that these feelings could not be wrong because they felt so right.

"I felt nurtured in many ways, I felt cared for. I felt special, I was very flattered.

"I did not feel at the time I was a victim. It was a relationship that developed in a completely normal way. We would kiss, he would touch me."

She told the jury she had not had any normal relationships at that stage after being abused by an uncle at a much earlier age.

"I now realise I was at the hands of paedophiles," she said.

Most of the abuse was said to have taken place in his office and his camper van which was parked on school grounds.

She said she would often go out in the van together and said "it was very easy for a teacher to take a student out of school in those days".

"He liked me to perform oral sex on him when he drove," she continued. "He would touch me also while he was driving...I don't think we ever stopped anywhere."

She said the relationship "intensified" when she was 15 and became more obvious to others at the school.

Sexual relations also took place when she visited the then Brewer family home in Chorlton, Manchester, as his ex-wife and children slept upstairs.

The alleged victim eventually left the school to study abroad but received a stream of letters from Brewer who signed them Mat - which she said stood for Middle Aged Teacher.

"I had almost daily letters telling me how much he loved me," she explained, "how he missed me, he was going to leave his wife when the time right and he would sign it 'Mat'."

She had started to lose interest though as she now had a boyfriend, she said.

Brewer, of Swarthmore Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, denies rape and 13 counts of indecent assault.

After leaving Chetham's, Brewer went on to become the artistic director of the National Youth Choirs of Britain and has also directed the World Youth Choir.

He also served as an adjudicator in international competitions and in 2008 led BBC workshops for the programme Last Choir Standing.

Hilary Kay Brewer, of Knowl Gap Avenue, Rossendale, Lancashire, denies one count of indecent assault and aiding and abetting rape.