October 2016 Perverted music teacher jailed for for eight-and-a-half A perverted music teacher was jailed for for eight-and-a-half years for sexually abusing a girl. Neil Hammerton, 49, attacked the seven year-old on two separate occasions between 2007 and 2010 while he was living in Redhill, Surrey. The girl first made her allegation in 2015, after Hammerton had been released from prison for sexually abusing another girl aged under 15 in 2009. April 2015 Teacher jailed for three years for child sex offences A MUSIC teacher has been jailed for three years for grooming and committing sexual acts with a child. Neil Hammerton, 44, formerly of Grovehill Road, Redhill, took advantage of the girl, who is aged younger than 15 and cannot be named for legal reasons. A successful music tutor, Hammerton had worked at a number of schools and was employed by Surrey County Council to teach music to schoolchildren. He set up the Redhill and Reigate School of Music and the Redhill and Reigate Community Big Band. But divorce, debt and drink contributed to his fall from grace, said his barrister at Guildford Crown Court. The father-of-three admitted three counts of sexual activity with a child and two of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. At his sentencing last Friday, prosecutor Rachel Davis said he had sent the girl Facebook messages that became increasingly sexual in nature. On the occasion of the first offence in October 2009, he gave her wine before kissing her. On two other dates, he touched her after the two had undressed. From the early 1990s, Hammerton began working as a teacher, ending up as a deputy head and director of music. However, stress forced him to quit in 2004 and he formed the Redhill and Reigate School of Music. He also worked for Surrey County Arts, with a number of church choirs, composed music and published papers. In 2005, he went through a costly divorce from his first wife and by 2008 was drinking eight to nine pints of cider per day. His second marriage has broken down and, before he was jailed, he had moved back in with his parents in Yapton, West Sussex, the court was told. Jailing him, Judge Neil Stewart said the offences have had a “profound effect” on the girl, and her parents had been left “simply heartbroken.” “She is plagued by shame and guilt, wholly unnecessary but unavoidable where offences of this kind are committed by an adult on a girl,” he added. Hammerton was also made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, which indefinitely restricts him from having contact with children aged under 16.