FORMER county boarding school headmaster Colin Wheeler was starting a nine-month sentence today after being convicted of a sex attack on a male pupil in his care.

The former head of Bredon School fondled the naked teenager under the guise of measuring his body to assess his physical development, Hereford Crown Court was told.

Judge David McEvoy QC said that Wheeler had breached the trust placed in him by the victim and so had made a custodial sentence inevitable.

He said the 43-year-old had used the boy for sexual gratification and ordered him to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

''You made the boy come to prove it in court, instead of admitting it to the court. You don't show any penitence at all, or contrition,'' the judge added.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court Wheeler pretended to measure his body with a tape measure, twice touching his private parts.

Wheeler, the school's rugby coach, was cleared by a jury of three other indecent assaults and the panel failed to reach verdicts on a further nine counts of indecent assault.

The judge ordered not guilty verdicts to be entered on all the counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict.

Wheeler, of Pinvin, near Pershore, had denied all 13 charges against him during the nine-day trial.

The judge last week directed the jury to acquit him of a 14th count of indecent assault against a former pupil.

The charges involved eight male pupils who attended Bredon School, where Wheeler was a master and later headmaster,during the 1980s and 1990s.

Wheeler claimed measurements of boys would help track their development and focus their weight training.

The defendant had a mainly male group of ''favourites'' at the co-educational private school.

When Wheeler was interviewed by police about the allegations, he denied grabbing any pupil in the genital area or any inappropriate behaviour.

Mark Evans QC, defending, said that Wheeler's teaching career was in utter ruins, adding: ''He has devoted his whole life to this profession''.