Teacher at Boris school is charged with raping girl, 9

A primary school teacher has been charged with raping a nine-year-old girl and indecently assaulting another child.

Robert Stringer, 56, was last night charged with three counts of rape of one girl, two counts of indecent assault on another, and eight counts of sexually touching one of the girls.

Stringer, who is married with children, was a teacher for several years at a primary school in Ruislip. He also ran a drama club at the school. He has been released on bail to appear before Uxbridge magistrates court on 4 June.

His alleged victims came forward following publicity in the Standard about Stringer's resignation from the primary school and his subsequent sacking from Canonbury Primary School in Islington, where Mayor Boris Johnson sends one of his children. Transport minister Lord Adonis also sends his children to Canonbury.

Police said: "Robert Stringer was today charged at a West London police station with three counts of rape on a female child (A) under the age of 13 years between June 2007 and December 2007; two of indecent assault on a female child (B) under the age of 13 between 1999 and 2000; and eight counts of sexual touching on a female child (A) under the age of 13 between June 2007 and December 2007."

Child B, who is now 17, is understood to have been eight at the time she was allegedly assaulted.

Stringer, who lives in Hertfordshire, quit the school in Ruislip after a parent complained that he had shown Shakespeare in Love, a film which contains some nudity, to children as young as seven in his drama club. Police investigated but found no evidence that a crime had been committed.

Stringer then worked for several months at Canonbury before being dismissed earlier this year after the row over the film screening came to light. He had been asked to run Canonbury's drama club by the then headteacher Jay Henderson, also from Hertfordshire, who was sacked this month after being caught watching pornography on the internet at work. Mr Henderson, 35, was also accused of presiding over a lax system of recruitment in which proper references were not obtained. There is no suggestion that he is involved in any criminal wrongdoing.

At the time of his dismissal, Stringer said of the film screening at the school in Ruislip: "The police investigated and dropped the allegations completely. I left [the school] because I had serious health issues at the time."