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Monday, 1 July, 2002, 15:52 GMT 16:52 UK
Police finish school abuse inquiry
John Owen at Rhondda Magistrates Court
John Owen had been due to stand trial on abuse charges
Police have confirmed that they have completed investigating fresh allegations made during an inquiry into child abuse at a south Wales school.

Children's Commissioner Peter Clarke launched an inquiry after John Owen, a former drama teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, killed himself while awaiting trial on charges of abusing pupils.

Children's Commissioner Peter Clarke
Peter Clarke's inquiry was interrupted

But the inquiry had to be called off two months ago after new allegations were made against other people.

Police examined claims against four others - one of them an English teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen who has since been suspended from work.

They said on Monday that a file had been sent to the CPS and a decision whether to prosecute or not would be made soon.

However they have also told Mr Clarke that it could be several weeks before he is able to continue his inquiry.

John Owen
John Owen wrote the children's TV drama, Pam Fi Duw?

Mr Owen, writer of the S4C youth drama Pam Fi Duw? - Why Me, God? - committed suicide last October - the day before he was due to stand trial accused of abusing pupils while teaching at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen in Pontypridd between 1977 and 1992.

Before being put on hold, the Peter Clarke inquiry - the first launched since he took up his post as Children's Commissioner - heard allegations that Mr Owen abused a female pupil at the school.

The woman who was a sixth-form pupil at the time told how Mr Owen began to show an interest in her at a time when her home life was unstable.

The Clywch inquiry held at the University of Glamorgan in Treforest near Cardiff, had been due to hear evidence from seven of Owen's alleged victims - five men and two women.

Mr Owen, from Tylorstown in the Rhondda, quit his job amid complaints about his teaching methods.

Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen:
Fellow teachers at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen were quizzed

He then went on to write Pam Fi Duw? as a novel, which later became a popular Welsh-language television drama series.

Last year, four of Owen's former pupils came forward with abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s.

He was charged with five counts of indecency with boys between 1974 and 1991.

In October 2001, he failed to appear at Cardiff Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The next day he was found dead in a caravan at Trecco Bay, Porthcawl on the south Wales coast.

An inquest at Pontypridd in December heard how Owen killed himself with an overdose of morphine.

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News image BBC Wales's Gail Foley
"We're told that a teacher or a former teacher may be involved in giving evidence to the police but we know no more than that"
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