FORMER county boarding school headmaster Colin Wheeler was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment after being convicted of a sex attack on a male pupil in his care.

Judge David McEvoy, at Hereford Crown Court, told the former head of Bredon School, near Upton-upon-Severn, that he had breached the trust placed in him by the victim and so had made a custodial sentence inevitable.

He said Wheeler, aged 43, 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.

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

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, Pershore, had denied all 13 charges against him during the nine-day trial. The judge also directed the jury to acquit him of a 14th count.

The charges involved eight male pupils at Bredon School. Wheeler claimed measurement of the boys would help focus their weight training.

When Wheeler was interviewed by the police, he denied any inappropriate behaviour.

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

Wheeler came to Bredon School in 1979 as a teacher and was later promoted to headmaster, a position he held until his suspension over allegations of gross misconduct in October 1998. He resigned the following month.

David Keyte, the school's general manager, said: "Senior staff have worked closely with social services to ensure that the lessons of this episode have been learned and to ensure as far as is humanly possible that nothing like it could ever happen at Bredon School again."