The headmaster of Eton College has issued a heartfelt apology following the conviction of a former teacher for the sexual assault of a student. The teacher, Jacob Leland, was sentenced after a court found him guilty of abusing a 16-year-old boy.

Leland, who taught Russian at the prestigious boarding school, reportedly invited the student to his residence, where he provided alcohol before committing the crime. The trial revealed that Leland, 37, had a disturbing reputation for engaging in “play wrestling” with students and exposing them to inappropriate content.

Simon Henderson, Eton College’s current headmaster, expressed his deep dismay over Leland’s actions. In a public statement, Henderson condemned the abuse and acknowledged the institution’s failure to uncover the details sooner. He emphasized the importance of facing the gravity of the incident, which occurred at a school where annual tuition exceeds £60,000.

“It is with great regret that we must acknowledge both the occurrence of such serious misconduct at Eton and the prolonged period before the facts came to light,” Henderson remarked. “As headmaster, I remain deeply troubled by the events that transpired within our community.”

‘Eton needs to acknowledge not only that something this serious was able to take place at our school, but also that it took several years for the details of what happened to come to light,’ Mr Henderson said. 

‘As headmaster, I remain appalled that this abuse happened at Eton.

‘Mr Leland’s criminal conduct represents the most egregious breach of trust.

‘Those who were directly impacted by Mr Leland’s actions had the right to be safe and secure in our care.’

Jacob Leland (pictured), a languages teacher at the elite boarding school, had invited the boy to his flat, given him alcohol and abused him, a court heard

Leland, aged 23 at the time in 2012, had sexually assaulted the victim, then aged 16, at his flat. He also sexually assaulted the victim in a separate incident, after which Leland ignored the boy, leaving him to ‘feel confused and rejected’

He added: ‘I reiterate my unreserved apologies to them on behalf of the school.’

Eloise Marshall KC, prosecuting, argued on Friday that Leland had used ‘sophisticated grooming techniques’ like giving the boys cigarettes. 

Ms Marshall said: ‘The victim was a student at Eton college and this defendant came to work at Eton college during the period the victim was studying there.

‘Jacob Leland invited the victim to his flat on the pretext of giving him a present, he gave him alcohol and cigarettes, asked the victim’s friends to leave before committing two offences.’

Leland, aged 23 at the time in 2012, had sexually assaulted the victim, then aged 16, at his flat in Eton, Berkshire, and commented ‘how hard I am’, the court heard.

He also sexually assaulted the victim during a school trip, after which Leland ignored the boy, leaving him to ‘feel confused and rejected’.

The victim said in a personal statement that he had suffered psychological harm, including complex post-traumatic stress disorder, from the incident.

Ms Marshall said: ‘The victim had particular vulnerability, that was known to this defendant and I note the pre-sentence report takes the view he targeted the victim for those reasons. He was able to become close to the victim and exploit the requests by the school to assist the victim.

Eton College in Berkshire. The 37-year-old was known for ‘play wrestling’ with the boys at the school and showing them sexually explicit videos

‘Whilst it may well be that asking the victim to his flat, giving alcohol and normalising tactile behaviour may not be extensive planning, it does require forethought.

‘There is no doubt these things were done on the basis that this defendant wished to build a sexual relationship with the victim.’

Leland, from Islington, London, denied three counts of sexual assault but was convicted after a trial in October. He had no previous convictions but had a caution for theft from 2007.

He was also acquitted of 10 counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, in relation to another pupil at the school.

The court heard Leland had admitted sexual activity with that complainant, but said it was a consensual relationship which took place when the boy was in Year 12 and Leland was no longer an Eton master. Leland left the school in August 2012, when he left to work in China, after almost two years at the school.

But Ms Marshall said there had been admissions of ‘reprehensible behaviour’ in relation to that other complainant, including where Leland had come back to visit Eton and ‘snuck over’ to the boys side of the boarding house to see that complainant.

‘That complainant was someone considerably younger than him’, Ms Marshall said. ‘He encouraged that complainant to lie to the school and his parents.’

Leland had also acted as a ‘lookout’ for boys at the school and encouraged them to sneak out past their curfew, the court heard.

Reading Crown Court where Leland was sentenced to over three years in jail for sexually assaulting one of the 16-year-old students  (file image)

‘His position at the school was that of a master in a position of trust and in a position of control over the young men in his charge’, Ms Marshall said. ‘The circumstances in which the victim was in this defendant’s accommodation was part and parcel of the grooming by this defendant.’

The former teacher claimed during his trial he was ‘made to feel like an outsider’ at Eton due to his boyish looks, sexuality and lack of familiarity with the school’s archaic ways.

Leland, in his early 20s at the time he worked at the boarding school after graduating from Cambridge having studied Russian, described how he was regularly mistaken for one of the boys by other members of staff, being told he wasn’t allowed to have more chips and asked which house he was in.

He told the trial that he struggled with acne and that he once found a piece of graffiti which said his ‘spots spell out the lyrics to High School musical in braille’, which hurt his feelings.

He said boy’s were regularly homophobic at Eton and seemed incredibly sexually confident, to the extent that he felt unable to teach them sex education because he believed them to be more experienced than him.

Esther Schutzer-Weissmann, defending, described Leland as ‘much younger and much less capable of navigating the position he found himself in’.

She said he was ‘a late developing man who was like a teenager in those characteristics and whose activity in respect of the victim did represent something that was out of character, did represent something that was a lamentable lapse of judgment’.

The barrister said Leland’s mother was an employee of his father, who was 22 years older than her and that the relationship had ended when Leland was a teenager, ‘in circumstances which included, for example, being told that his mother was dead when she had simply left’.

Leland had been quoted in the pre-sentence report as saying he wanted to apologise to the victim for ‘taking advantage of him in a place where he should have felt safe.’

‘I used him for my own gratification’, Leland had said. ‘I have left him with lasting scars.’

Judge Kirsty Real, sentencing at Reading crown court, said only an immediate custodial sentence could be justified.

The judge said: ‘The relationship of teacher and student at a school gives rise, undoubtedly, to a significant level of responsibility towards the victim upon which the victim would be entitled to rely.

‘For the victim, the psychological effects of what you did to him have been long-lasting and serious.’ 

‘Due to the way you interacted with the boys more generally, you were thought to be cool in comparison with other teachers’, the judge said.

In his statement, Mr Henderson added: ‘The welfare and wellbeing of our pupils is Eton’s top priority.

‘When safeguarding issues arise they are dealt with in accordance with our established processes.

‘We work in close partnership with external authorities, referring matters to them where appropriate, as we did in this case.’

Judge Real jailed Leland, of Gatcombe Road, London, for three years and three months and told him he must sign the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.