Abusing Teacher Stripped Of OBE

A former teacher who is serving a prison term for sexually abusing young girls has been stripped of his OBE. Denis Edward Grant was jailed for three and a half years at Belfast Crown Court in April.

The 69-year-old was found guilty of committing sex offences against six girls who he was tutoring at his home in Cabin Hill Park.

Grant was awarded the military division of the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 1984.

At that time, he was the acting lieutenant colonel of the Cadet Corp at Campbell College, where he taught. Now, the Queen has ordered that the award be forfeited.

An announcement in the London Gazette on Tuesday said the honour will be cancelled and annulled and Grant’s name will be erased from the register of the Order.

Grant, who had a 40-year teaching career, was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and remain on it for life. He was barred from ever working with children again.

Sentencing him in March, Judge Denise Kennedy told him: “Your life is in ruins, you are a disgrace.”

During the trial, the court heard the girls, aged between nine and 12 years old, were subjected to “regular and sustained” sexual abuse while being tutored for the transfer test between 2003 and 2004.

He was also acquitted of 13 charges of indecent assault.

The court heard one of his victims now suffers from clinical depression while another has developed psychiatric problems.

Judge Kennedy said Grant had shown no remorse and had forced his victims to relive their experiences in court where they were accused of telling lies.