A SCHOOL where a Hampshire monk sexually assaulted a 12-year-old pupil is ending 20 years of control by the Roman Catholic clergy.

Father Richard White, 66, from Hyde near Fordingbridge, pictured, was jailed for five years last week at Taunton Crown Court after being convicted of offences of gross indecency and indecent assault against a young boy in the 1980s.

The crimes took place at the £26,000-a-year Downside School in Somerset, where White lured his victim into the monastery library, which was usually off-limits to students. Now the school has announced “a major restructuring of governance”, giving control to an independent governing body.