April 2005 Carer loses sex abuse appeal A father-of-three convicted of sexually abusing boys at a Welsh care home more than 30 years ago has lost an appeal against his sentence. Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London dismissed the appeal by Anthony Burke against convictions on four charges of abusing two teenagers in his care. They found that a fifth conviction – for a serious sexual offence against a third teenager – was unsafe and it was quashed. Burke, from Lavernock, Penarth, was convicted in December 2001 after a three-week trial at Cardiff Crown Court. The offences were committed on teenagers aged between 13 and 17 who were at Penhill Assessment Centre in Cathedral Road, Cardiff December 2001 Dad jailed for sex abuse inflicted on boys as a teacher A FATHER-OF-THREE was today beginning an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence for sexually abusing boys he taught 30 years ago.  Anthony Burke, 60, of Petrel Close, Lavernock, Penarth, committed the offences while working at Penhill Assessment Centre in Cathedral Road, Cardiff.  Three former pupils, aged between 13 and 17 at the time, had told a jury at the city’s Crown Court how Burke befriended them, touched them indecently and committed serious sexual acts on them after being sent there in 1970.  After the trial, which the Echo was unable to report because of legal restrictions, a jury found Burke guilty of two counts of indecent assault and three of a more serious sexual nature.  He had denied all the allegations, including two other charges relating to a fourth complainant, which the jury cleared him of.  Prosecutor David Essex Williams said at the start of the trial: “The boys, now men, say he abused them while they were in his care.”  Yesterday, the jury decided, in spite of claims made during the case, three of the men may have been making up their stories to gain compensation.  All three had gone to Penhill for short periods after committing petty offences or playing truant from school.  One told the court how he ran away and was taken to have a bath by Burke when he returned at midnight.  The victim said: “He ran the bath for me and then came up behind me, pressing against me and kissing my neck. I tried to push him away.”  Another said: “Burke was sympathetic to me at first but I used to wet the bed and have to shower at night.  He would touch me while I was naked.”  Burke was a music student for four years in Cardiff before working as an unqualified supply teacher in the Rhymney Valley and later at Lady Mary High School in Cyncoed, Cardiff.  He left when unqualified staff were replaced by qualified teachers and told the court he had intended to travel until he was told Penhill was desperate for staff.  Jailing him, Judge Peter Jacobs said it was clear he had since moved on, had no previous convictions and had in the past 15 years acquired a wife and three children.  He added: “The culture at the time was children like these were unlikely to complain and if they did no one would believe them.”  Burke was ordered to stay on the sex offender’s register for the rest of his life.