Talk:Gerd Sommerhoff

Extent of Gerd Sommerhoff's sexual abuse

Gerd Sommerhoff was described as Sevenoaks' School's Jimmy Savile (BBC News, 21 November 2013) with "at least 8 victims" known at that time. Although he appears not to have been as opportunistic nor as prolific as Jimmy Savile, it does appear that he sexually groomed 2 or more pupils per year while at Sevenoaks School. All identifiable pupils were boys in the narrow age range of 10-12 years. Gerd Sommerhoff described relationships with "young men" in his own autobiographical comments, so he may also have had relationships with older pupils or young adults. An edit made to this biographical entry (22nd June) described a sexual approach to another pupil on holiday with Gerd Sommerhoff in his home, sharing a bed with him:

I was a bit surprised I hadn't got my own room but was sharing a room, and the big bed, with Gerd. When we got to bed he asked "Do you have a girl friend?". "No". "What would you do with your girlfriend if you had one?". "No idea". He then tried to get me to reach over and stroke his penis. I said no, I wanted to go to sleep, and that's exactly what we did, slept soundly side by side!

The commenter wrote that Gerd Sommerhoff was his teacher at The Dragon School and he was himself aged 10-12 years. It seems probable that Gerd sommerhoff's sexual abuse continued throughout his career at the Dragon School and Sevenoaks School, as well as his other positions with the BBC and in Cambridge. This is supported by an autobiographical comment by a Dragon School pupil:

It is only some fifty years later that several people have told me that there was a fairly persistent paedophile in the school. Personally I got on well with this individual and none of his supposed victims, one of whom was one of my closest friends, ever suggested anything about this to me at the time. Alan Macfarlane in "Becoming a Dragon", 2013 (page 73)

The total number of groomed and sexually abused pupils is probably in excess of 100.

== Terminology

It would seem certain that some or all of these children, aged 10-12, were pre-pubescent or pubescent. In either case, the distinction seems like an irrelevance to the actions. Sean-Paul Doran () reported "A legal claim involving high-profile former teacher, inventor, author and philosopher Gerd Sommerhoff, now dead, was last week settled out of court. The lawyer of the unidentified claimant described the settlement as a “not-so-insignificant amount”. The distinguished German-born Sommerhoff, who was later awarded an OBE, was alleged to have sexually abused a then-12-year-old boy between 1976 and 1983. However, another man who says he was abused by Sommerhoff in the 1970s has told the Chronicle that he knows of at least six more alleged victims, all ex-pupils, who have not spoken out." There are no obvious records to indicate whether any of these children had passed puberty, nor any good reason why that would be relevant to a teacher sexual assaulting children. 93.107.3.106 (talk) 16:02, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I was aged 21 (in 1989) when he made an entirely consensual pass at me, while I was a student at Trinity.2A00:23C7:C10C:ED00:743F:F643:599C:4CC2 (talk) 16:48, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

References