November 13, 1992 A primary school teacher who played bizarre sex games with two young pupils was jailed for 21 months at the Old Bailey   Peter Tyndall, 40, was told by Judge Heather Steel:’You took away their childhood.’ She added:’There is no sentence I can pass which will in any way recompense either of those two boys for the way you corrupted them. No one can possibly calculate the damage that has been done to them.’ Tyndall, a teacher for 18 years, forced the boys to dress up in nappies and to drink from a baby’s bottle while he abused them. He also played a game in which the schoolboys carried out ‘deeds’ written down on cards for money. Tyndall was suspended in 1988 following complaints that he had abused pupils at Joseph Tritton Primary School, Wandsworth. But an 18 month investigation by Wandsworth Council failed to substantiate the allegations and he was allowed to resume work as a teacher. Tyndall moved to a new school, Kings Acre Junior School, Lambeth. Two years later the investigation was reopened after an allegation that he had abused another boy. Tyndall, of Southcroft Road, Streatham, pleaded guilty to charges of indecently assaulting two boys and committing acts of gross indecency with them between 1979 and 1983. He denied two charges of indecently assaulting a third boy between 1989 and 1990 and these were left on the court file to save the boy from having to go through the ordeal of giving evidence.  At the time of his arrest, the court heard, Tyndall was engaged to be married to a fellow teacher, after forming the first heterosexual relationship of his life.  But as soon as his fiancee found out about his secret past she called off the wedding and left him. Mr Philip King, defending, said:’His life is in ruins. His career is terminated. It will never be resurrected.’ He added that Tyndall had served the community well while working as a teacher. But now he faced a miserable life of fear behind bars.  He will be kept in solitary confinement to stop other prisoners attacking him. Mr Andrew Mitchell, prosecuting, said the first boy was abused by Tyndall after the teacher took him, and other pupils swimming. The boy was invited back to the teacher’s home, forced to climb into bed with him, wear a nappy, drink from a baby’s bottle and take part in sex acts. On a school camping trip the boy shared a sleeping bag with Tyndall and more abuse took place, the court heard. Even after the boy left the primary school he kept in touch with the teacher and sex acts continued to take place until he was 14. Mr Mitchell said:’The defendant had developed an interest in creating little cards with deeds written on them. On carrying out the deeds the boy would receive a sum of money written on the cards.’  The second boy was taught by Tyndall between the ages of eight and 11, the court heard. He was also abused after going swimming with the teacher and was forced to play the same sex games involving dressing up as a baby and using the cards. Mr Mitchell said that on a school trip the boy was punished for ‘mucking about’ by being made to go to bed wearing a nappy. He was then molested by Tyndall. The boy was even abused in a photocopying room at school.