THE former head of a boys' boarding school, Philip Cadman, 74, and one

of his teachers, William Printer, 36, yesterday had their 10-year jail

sentences for sexual assaults on pupils cut to six years by the Appeal

Court.

Lord Justice Watkins and two other Judges rejected their appeals

against the convictions imposed after both men's activities at Crookham

Court school, Newbury, Berks, were exposed by Esther Rantzen on her TV

show, That's Life.

But the Judges held that the sentences passed at Reading Crown Court

in July 1990 were ''excessive'' and should be set aside and substituted

with six years.

The school was owned by Cadman, who was also headmaster. He was jailed

for buggery and indecent assault, and Printer for attempted buggery and

indecent assault.

Lord Justice Watkins said: ''It was not suggested that any of the

(three) boys in respect of whom there were convictions were in any way

used with violence or otherwise ill-treated.''

Nor was it contended that what had happened had had a lasting effect

upon them.

The careers of Cadman and Printer, who had been of good character,

were ruined. The sentence on Cadman, now an old man, was ''crushing''

him.

A co-accused, Anthony Edmunds, who had pleaded guilty to a large

number of offences of buggery and indecent assaults on boys at a school

where he taught in the north Midlands as well as at Crookham Court, had

been sentenced to an overall term of six years for more offences of a

more serious kind.

At the trial, Mr Justice Drake described the two masters as sexual

perverts who had corrupted young boys and abused their position of

trust.

During the appeal hearing, Cadman's counsel, Mr David Cocks, QC, said

that the case had given the jury ''a great deal of anxiety''. One of the

chief reasons was the manner in which the investigation had been

conducted and the ''tactics'' adopted by the BBC and the That's Life

team headed by Esther Rantzen.