Retired teacher accused of abuse at Tony Blair’s old school arrested in South Africa

A retired teacher who Nicky Campbell, the BBC presenter, said he witnessed molesting a classmate at a prestigious Edinburgh school has been arrested in South Africa.

He appeared at Wynberg Magistrates Court, in Cape Town, after being arrested, charged with with committing an indecent act with a minor, and indecent assault at a boys primary school in Cape Town in 1988.

He was released pending a further hearing and has denied claims against him. He has agreed to hand his passport to police.

Dozens of former pupils at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College, Sir Tony Blair’s old school, have accused the 83-year-old of abuse when he worked at the schools in the 1960s and 70s.

The man cannot be named for legal reasons and is identified in court documents by the pseudonym “Edgar”.

He is appealing against extradition to the UK and was reported to have attended a sexual offences office near Claremont police station, in Cape Town, on Monday morning.

Earlier this month, the BBC earlier this month reported that “Edgar” had also been the subject of a new abuse complaint dating to his time at Rondebosch Boys School in Cape Town in the 1990s.

His identity has been protected after the Scottish child abuse inquiry passed an anonymity order forbidding people who have been accused but not convicted of abuse from being named.

‘Dozens of boys have come forward’

Last month Ian Blackford, the former SNP Westminster leader, attempted to unmask him by using parliamentary privilege to identify him in the UK so more victims could come forward.

Mr Blackford, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, told the Commons at the time: “We now know that dozens of boys have come forward to the police with allegations against the man referred to as ‘Edgar’.

“It is important that others who were abused by this man can come forward. It is right that his crimes against children are named, and it is also right that he is now named.”

In 2020, a court signed an order to extradite Edgar to the UK, where he faces six charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour and one charge of indecent assault.

He has launched legal attempts to block extradition, and argued it would be “too severe a punishment”.

After teacher training, he worked at Edinburgh Academy before moving to Fettes in 1973. He left in 1979 after a complaint by a boy and returned to South Africa, where he continued to teach.