Former headteacher of school near Midhurst charged with further child sex offences

Frank Skipwith, 79, now of Eynsham, Oxfordshire, had already been charged with 19 historic offences of indecent assaults against eight boys then under-14 at Fernden preparatory school near Midhurst, according to the spokesman.

At Lewes Crown Court on Monday 25 November, four further charges were made against him of indecent assaults against two other boys at the school – three against one boy and one against the other boy, police said.

Skipwith has pleaded not guilty to the 19 offences, but has not entered a plea in relation to the further four, and will face trial on all 23 charges at Lewes Crown Court on 27 January 2020, confirmed police.

He is on court bail in the meantime and did not attend court on 25 November.

The prosecution, authorised by the CPS, follows an investigation by detectives from the Sussex Police Complex Abuse Unit.

The school closed in 1985.

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