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Queen's choirmaster jailed
Last updated at 00:00am on 25.08.04
Jailed: Jonathan Rees-Williams
A former choirmaster to the Queen who carried out a string of sex attacks on children over a 14-year period has been jailed for five years.
Jonathan Rees-Williams was also convicted of possessing indecent images on computers.
Rees-Williams, 55, served the Royal Family as organist and choirmaster at St George's Chapel, Windsor.
But his reputation lay in tatters after allegations of sexual abuse earlier in his career emerged.
A police investigation uncovered a catalogue of incidents involving both male and female victims over a 14-year period up to 30 years ago.
And after five men and one woman, all now in adult life, relived their childhood experiences before a jury at Reading Crown Court in June, he was convicted of 18 separate charges of indecent assault - five of which he admitted.
At the same court today, Judge Jonathan Playford QC jailed Rees-Williams, of Handford Way, Bristol, for five years for the indecent assaults as well as a further three months, to run consecutively, for possessing 127 indecent images of children on two computers.
Passing his sentence, the judge acknowledged that Rees-Williams had "fallen from the top to the bottom of society" but described his crimes as "deplorable and offensive to the public".
The judge also told Rees-Williams that on his release he would be banned from working with children indefinitely and must register on the sex offenders list, also indefinitely.
