The Evening Standard
Forum Tutors, the elite tutoring agency that employed Giles Gallen, the 27-year-old found stabbed to death in Barnes, have spoken of their relief after a man was yesterday charged with his murder. They have also spoken of their shock at discovering that the man charged was also employed as a Forum tutor.
Giles Gallen, 27, who had been working as a private tutor since graduating from Cambridge, died from knife wounds after being attacked in Barnes Old Cemetery on September 13th.
The man charged with his murder is 27-year-old Simon Prest, of Barnes, who was also employed as a tutor by Forum.
In their investigation of Gallen’s murder, Metropolitan Police detectives looked closely at Gallen’s tutoring activities and the firm he worked for. Forum Tutors insisted that they 348knew nothing about what might have led to his murder and saw no connection with his work for the agency.
Yesterday Felicia Ireland, who runs the Forum Agency with her husband Roddy, gave her reaction to the recent developments. ‘First of all, I am relieved that the police have been able to charge a man with Giles’s murder. I sincerely hope that whoever is responsible is brought to justice and we are able to draw a line under this horrendous event. My sympathy and my best wishes go out to Giles Gallen’s family who must still be going through such unbearable pain.’
When asked about Forum’s employment of the man charged with Gallen’s murder, Felica Ireland said it came as a horrible shock. ‘We had absolutely no idea. We are meticulous in our checking of references and in our safeguarding checks and are as surprised as everyone else. All we know is that both Giles Gallen and Simon Prest came to us with excellent references from the school they attended together and from their universities.’
Another man was charged yesterday with offences believed to be related to Gallen’s murder.
Hugo Mountford, of Finsbury Park, was charged with assault, threats to kill and carrying a bladed article in public. Three of the victims of his assaults also worked as Forum tutors.
When questioned about this, Felicia Ireland said, ‘We will leave it to the police to discover the reasons for the attacks. All I would like to say is that Forum tutors and those using our tutoring services should now go about their business 349confident that they are safe. For Forum it is now very much business as usual.’
Giles Gallen, Simon Prest and Hugo Mountford were all pupils together at Radley College.
Radley College were unavailable for comment.
EMILY FRANCIS gives her reaction to yesterday’s events.
It is a huge relief to learn that the police have arrested and charged a man with the murder of Giles Gallen. But it is a huge shock to discover that the charged man was also working as a private tutor.
Ever since Giles Gallen was found murdered the spotlight has been thrown on the whole tutoring enterprise. When tutors were attacked and threatened, London’s affluent tutor-employing classes started to ask themselves serious questions. Who are these people they let into their homes? Who are they trusting with such intimate access to their children? What risks are they taking? In short – is it worth it?
It’s certainly worth it to firms like Forum who make huge amounts of money, feeding off parental anxiety and the ultra-competitive nature of London schools. They may parade their charitable initiatives (Forum, for example, engage in pro bono work in inner city state schools) but that 350is no more than a sop to their conscience and a smooth PR gesture.
I am still employed as a tutor. I knew Giles Gallen. I was one of those assaulted in the wake of his murder.
But these events have left me in no doubt that now is the time to stop. I don’t know what I will do next to bring in money (though a career in journalism still remains my ultimate goal) but I don’t think I can carry on working as a tutor.
DCI Deighton raised her glass. ‘Cheers, Jim.’
Garibaldi clinked his glass against hers. ‘Cheers!’
‘I think it’s safe to call me Karen, don’t you?’
Garibaldi smiled. ‘OK. Cheers, Karen.’
He looked round the bar. Discreet and sophisticated and Deighton’s choice. He wasn’t sure why this surprised him, but then he wasn’t sure about so many things when it came to his boss.
‘We haven’t come here to talk about work,’ said Deighton, ‘so let’s get the Gallen case out of the way first, shall we?’
‘Sure,’ said Garibaldi. ‘Though I’m not sure what to say. Let’s hope we can get Prest and Mountford. As to what they did to that boy in the cemetery, who knows what will happen?’
‘Good to think that justice might be done.’
‘A long way to go.’
‘Yeah, but enough of that. Let’s talk about you.’
Garibaldi felt he was blushing. So many years of feeling he didn’t really know his boss and now an evening of intimate revelation. He wasn’t sure he was up to it.
‘Sometimes,’ said Deighton, ‘I get the sense you don’t 351really want to be a cop at all. Then at others I think you’re one of the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t get it.’
‘Nor do I,’ said Garibaldi. ‘Some days I love the challenge, the desire to solve the puzzle. Other days I want to chuck it all in.’
‘What would you do if you chucked it in?’
‘I’ve always wanted to go to university.’
‘So you’d go as a mature student?’
‘Yeah. Philosophy maybe. Or History. Maybe Italian, though I don’t think I’m up to that.’
‘Maybe you should do it.’
‘Are you trying to get rid of me?’
‘Why would I want to do that? You’re a good egg, Jim.’
A good egg? He couldn’t remember ever having been called that before. He wasn’t even sure what it meant. Typical Deighton.
‘There’s one question I’ve always wanted to ask you, Jim, and I guess now might be the right time.’
Garibaldi braced himself. What was coming?
‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Ask me and I’ll promise you an honest answer.’
‘Does that mean I only get one honest answer all evening?’
‘We’ll have to see.’
Deighton took a sip of her drink. Her face had lost the pastoral care look it had worn earlier in the evening. She seemed a different person.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘I know you don’t drive. Everyone knows that. It’s one of your, how shall I put it, charming eccentricities, along with your habit of quoting writers and making references that leave people baffled—’
‘Maybe it’s what makes me a good egg.’
‘Maybe it is. But my question is why don’t you drive?’ 352
Garibaldi paused. Should he tell her?
‘I mean, is it because you tried to learn but couldn’t? Is it because you never learned? The only reason I ask is that nearly everyone drives and …’
‘OK,’ said Garibaldi. ‘It’s like this.’
He took a breath and told her. How he lost his parents and how whenever he sat behind a wheel the flashbacks came and panic overwhelmed him. How it only happened when he held the wheel, not when he was a passenger.
When he had finished Deighton nodded as if she understood. ‘I had no idea,’ she said.
‘Why would you?’ said Garibaldi. ‘And now it’s my turn. One question and an honest answer.’
‘I’m all yours.’
‘Before we swap notes on what it’s like to live with a teacher, I want to know all about yours. So, tell me. What’s she like?’