Choir boss in appeal bid to cut jail term

Shamed choirmaster Michael Brewer wants to appeal against the length of his six-year prison sentence for indecently assaulting a former pupil.

The ex-music director at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester was jailed in March after he was convicted of child sex offences against Frances Andrade who took her life at her home during his trial.

On Tuesday it emerged that Brewer, 68, had been stripped of his OBE awarded for services to music in December 1994.

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Brewer has lodged an application to seek permission to appeal his sentence.

The matter will be dealt with by the Lord Chief Justice, sitting with two other judges, at the Court of Appeal on June 12. The judges will decide whether to grant permission and then hear the full appeal.

Brewer, of Selly Oak, Birmingham, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of five counts of indecently assaulting Mrs Andrade when she was 14 and 15.

The abuse took place in his office and in his camper van, which he used to drive her out of the school grounds and get her to perform oral sex on him.

He was cleared of raping Mrs Andrade when she was 18.

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Sentencing him, Judge Martin Rudland labelled Brewer “a predatory sex offender” and said he used his powerful position to select and groom his victims.

Brewer also targeted a 17-year-old student at Chetham’s who Brewer fondled in his office and admitted in court that he fell in love with at the age of 49, while another 17-year-old girl was said to have been pinned up against a wall during a school trip and sexually propositioned.

Brewer’s ex-wife, Kay, 68, was jailed for 21 months after she was convicted at the same trial of indecently assaulting Mrs Andrade when she was 18.

The trial heard claims that sexual activity between teachers and pupils at Chetham’s was not uncommon.

Ten key suspects have been identified in an inquiry by Greater Manchester Police which is also looking at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music.

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