US Edition
A former trainee church minister conducted fake “radiation examinations” on students in Scotland in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to sexually assault victims.
John Beaumont, 66, convinced three victims at St Andrews University that he was on a “secret mission” to test them for poison for the Ministry of Defence.
Under the elaborate plan he would produce a Geiger counter, have his targets sign pretend Official Secrets Act documents and warned they would be charged by the authorities if they breached the agreements.
He was jailed for four years and eight months on Friday for offences committed against three victims while he was a theology student at St Andrews University in the late 1980s.
Beaumont had already been convicted of similar crimes in 2017 and was serving a 13-and-a-half year sentence after convincing three other victims they may have suffered radiation poisoning.
Lord Mulholland, the judge, told Beaumont he had abused his position of trust as a warden at a halls of residence to trick “young impressionable students”.
One of the male victims said he had believed Beaumont’s claims, made between 1987 and 1988, because of press reports about radiation potentially blowing over to the UK following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
A female victim told how she had been approached by him in 1988 and was told he had been asked to test her radiation levels by the Foreign Office.
After victims agreed to undergo testing, he would then jab them with a hypodermic needle and subject them to intimate physical examinations.
Lord Mulholland rejected pleas from Janice Green, Beaumont’s lawyer, to allow the sentences to run concurrently with his existing jail term.
It means the latest sentence of almost five years will be added to the 2017 sentence handed down by a court in Manchester.
“You preyed on their experience and pretended to be employed by the Ministry of Defence to take samples to check for radiation levels after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster,” Lord Mulholland told Beaumont.
Predator
“The samples were taken from intimate areas of their bodies. You are predatory and used your status and maturity to prey on them.
“I don’t think it is appropriate that the sentence runs concurrently as that will mean you won’t be punished in any way other than denunciation for the offences you pled guilty to.”
After striking up a friendship with one male victim at St Andrews, Beaumont claimed he had been tasked with taking secret samples from members of the public by the MoD.
He stated that, based on his medical records, his victim had a heightened risk of developing cancer leaving him “terrified” and believing him that it was true.
Beaumont, a former trainee church minister and funeral celebrant, admitted three charges of indecent assault at the High Court in Edinburgh in October last year, ahead of his sentencing on Friday.
Ms Green said her client had not inflicted any physical harm and that his victims had “all believed for a long time” that they had been part of a genuine research programme.
She said they had only realised when Beaumont was convicted for similar offences in 2017 that this was not the case.
However, Katrina Parkes, Scotland’s Procurator Fiscal for High Court sexual offences, said there may be more victims and urged them to come forward.
“John Beaumont manipulated and preyed on vulnerable students who should have been safe under his care,” she said.
“He exploited their fears and went to extreme lengths to convince them he was carrying out medical tests in an official capacity.
“His victims have shown great courage and resilience in holding this man accountable for his crimes.”