A former school welfare officer and Army cadet leader has been jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of sexually assaulting teenage girls.

Neil Beckett, 43, with an address at Kilmore, near Crossgar in County Down, was found guilty of 16 counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual grooming in October.

The offences occurred over an eight-year period between 2015 and 2023. Eleven teenagers had brought charges against Beckett.

A judge sentenced him to a total of three years – 18 months in prison and 18 months out on licence.

Nine of the teenagers who brought charges were pupils at Lagan College in Belfast and two were Army cadets.

The judge said there were aggravating factors in this case, among them abuse of trust and authority and the vulnerability of the victims, which Beckett knew about.

He said there were elements of grooming in Beckett’s offending and that it continued after he was made aware of some of the allegations.

Judge Gilpin said “there was more to what you did than just the physical acts” and told Beckett he acted “for sexual purposes”.

The court heard that Beckett continued to deny the offences and showed limited empathy for the victims in the case.

For the first time, many of the victims were in court supported by family.

They had all watched proceedings and given evidence from a remote evidence facility throughout the trial.

The judge also issued Beckett with a Sexual Offence Protection Order (SOPO) and gave restraining orders to all of the victims for five years.

He will be on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.

In his trial, Beckett was found not guilty of rape, which was alleged to have taken place sometime between 2013 and 2015 while he was an Army cadet leader.

He was also found not guilty of sexual communication with a child and 10 further counts of sexual assault.

Anne, not her real name, was a pupil at Lagan College when Beckett assaulted her.

She said she was in Year 14 when Beckett began coming into the school as a health and wellbeing officer.

“He was nice to talk to, and I started going back to him more regularly, pretty much every day, or at least a couple of times a week,” she told BBC News NI.

“He offered me a place to get out of class; he would email teachers to excuse my absences for class, and every time, pretty much every time, he would give me a hug.

“A lot of the time it wasn’t for any reason. It started to get a lot. Then there was one time he tickled me, which was a bit odd, and I started to think this is a bit weird, so I saw him less and less.”

Anne didn’t report the incidents until she saw his arrest and charge on the news.

“When it all came out in the media, I realised I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, so I reported it,” she said.

“The way my parents looked at me the day I told them what had happened made me realise this is definitely not OK.

“Now I realise it was all manipulation, to be able to get children alone in a room with him. He was absolutely grooming me. Realising that I was manipulated and groomed for his gratification has made it hard to trust people.

“I think he was very skilled in targeting very vulnerable girls; I think that was his goal.”

Anne feels the school should have done more to safeguard her.

“I think he is very charmingly manipulative and he should never be in contact with any children ever again. He had such unfiltered, unrestricted access to so many girls, which shouldn’t ever have been allowed in the first place.

“It eats you alive inside, and the only way to get through it and get some semblance of justice is to talk about it and come forward if you can.

“I think that there were many opportunities that the school had to be able to realise that this man is an abuser and a groomer, and I feel like they ignored that.”

In a statement Lagan College told BBC News NI the school “wishes to acknowledge the courage and bravery of the young people who came forward”.

It goes on to say the school “has fully engaged with the PSNI, the Children and Young People’s Service at the Education Authority, and the Public Prosecution Service, outlining how policies and procedures were followed in relation to this serious safeguarding matter”.

During the trial, which spanned five weeks, the court heard from Lagan College pupils and Army cadets who said that Beckett had hugged them, kissed them, touched their thighs and tickled them.

PSNI Det Insp Noelle Gray told BBC News NI the victims in this case “should be so proud of themselves”.

“Ending violence against women and girls is very much in the forefront of policing at the moment. This case highlights that because all our victims are girls.”

She said there were a number of delays in the case as “the criminal justice system can be slow but we are working to try to speed that up”.

Det Insp Gray also said there were a number of victims who police spoke to who chose not to engage “whether through their own vulnerabilities or just not feeling comfortable”.

“We have to be victim-focused and go by what the victim wants.”

Anne’s mum told BBC News NI she believes the school missed chances to safeguard her daughter and others.

“As a parent, you spend your whole time and energy trying to keep your children safe; you make the assumption that when you send them to school, they’re going to be safe and that didn’t happen.

“There were opportunities, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but even without hindsight there were opportunities for the school.”