Ex-choirboy who sang at Diana's wedding is shopped by wife for secretly filming schoolgirls

Christopher Bell, 39, used a pinhole camera to photograph the girls, aged between 12 and 15, as they changed clothes at school and at his home.

The offences came to light after his estranged wife discovered the pictures and informed police.

The victims included a 13-year-old who was persuaded to take off her clothes in his office and put on a corset for a musical production.

Others were told to put on leotards in his bathroom which would help with "posture and breathing exercises".

Bell - a child prodigy who sang at Princess Diana's wedding in 1981 - also filmed three women at his Norwich home without their knowledge.

The married father of two targeted pupils at the £11,000-a-year private school where he worked in Norfolk.

One of his roles was taking pupils on tours across the UK and abroad.

Insiders at the school yesterday said he left last October, two months before his arrest, amid a scandal after leaving his wife to set up home with a teenager.

He also quit his post as master of music at St John's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Norwich in July last year.

Jailing Bell at Norwich Crown Court, Judge Peter Jacobs told him the offences were "a violation of children" and said his teaching career was "finished".

He added: "This wasn't simply peeping through a keyhole. This was planned voyeurism involving a breach of trust and setting up of photographic equipment."

Bell began his musical career at the age of nine when he was admitted into the choir of St Paul's Cathedral.

This led to an audience with Pope John Paul II at the Sistine Chapel in Rome. In a varied career, he went on to make several appearances on television.

His voice features on a wide range of recordings, both religious and secular, including one with Paul McCartney. He has also toured America playing trumpet and piano with a jazz band.

He became part-time master of music at St John's Cathedral in 1998 and ran courses for choristers across East Anglia as a member of the Royal School of Church Music.

A police investigation was launched last year after indecent images were discovered on his computer by his wife Sally, a former alto singer in one of his choirs, after they separated.

Mrs Bell, 36, declined to comment yesterday.

Prosecutor Douglas Mackay told Norwich Crown Court on Tuesday that Bell had placed a pinhole camera in his shower at home.

The disgraced teacher admitted making indecent photographs of six girls between 1997 and 2006 and three counts of voyeurism involving the women.

Scroll down for more...

None of the victims' names and the school involved can be identified for legal reasons.

His victims had no idea about the filming until they were contacted by police. An elder sister of one said after the case: "He used his talent to pick up and choose his victims.

"He has destroyed a lot of happy memories of schooldays."

The mother of another victim said: "My daughter feels violated by what happened and we feel disgusted.

"We knew he was close to the girls but we never dreamt there was anything untoward."

A spokesman for the East Anglian Roman Catholic diocese said: "Mr Bell left his position as master of music over an unrelated matter.

"The diocese has co-operated as fully as it can with the authorities."

The school's headmaster said he was pleased Bell was "going to face the consequences of this gross misconduct".

Bell was also placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years and banned from working with children or having contact with girls under 16.