Art teacher Steve Beck abused boy at Anerley Town Hall

Well-known Bromley painter Stephen Beck, 73, of Anerley Road, was sent to prison for 12 years on Monday (June 17) after being convicted of 15 historic sexual offences.

His crimes included performing a sex act on a child inside Anerley Town Hall, where he hosted award-winning art classes for more than a decade.

Beck was best known in Anerley for painting shop signs and restaurant menus, but in 1975 had launched a bid for music stardom, recording a single, “For The Love Of You”, under the name Steve Beck.

When his quest for fame fell flat, he became a freelance artist and teacher, winning a Jack Petchey Award in 2009 for providing “outstanding leadership” to children in Bromley.

But in April, a jury found he had groomed and sexually abused one of his students for years.

Judge Deborah Charles praised Beck’s “brave” victim, now in his 30s, for finally disclosing his abuse in 2018.

Stephen Beck sexually abused his victim at Anerley Town Hall when the boy was 13 or 14 years old, jurors ruled (Image: Google Streetview)

“You took advantage of him for your own sexual gratification,” she told Beck, who wore a green sweatshirt and a beaded crucifix necklace to the hearing at Croydon Crown Court.

“You were treating him as though you were in a loving relationship with him. In fact, you were his abuser.

“He was young, confused, impressionable and in need of someone he could trust and look up to. You groomed him.”

The abuse began in the summer of 2000, the victim remembered, as it was around the time of the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday celebrations.

But, said prosecutor Jeremy Wainwright KC, the grooming had begun when the boy was six or seven.  

Once the abuse started, he said, it occurred “every two to three weeks for a period of years”.

“He would feign sleep on some occasions when you were abusing him,” said Judge Charles. “He said that you were persistent, however.”

The judge criticised Beck for trying to shift the blame onto his victim at trial, where he boasted of a friendship with David Bowie and claimed he had almost achieved fame himself.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said Beck had “controlled me through emotional manipulation” by faking “care, love and adoration”.

The victim called Beck “a dark individual who has remained hidden within the community for many years, believing in his hubris that he would get away with his crimes.”

The abuse, he wrote, had “created deep wounds that will affect myself and my family for years to come.”

“He has been profoundly affected by what you did to him,” said Judge Charles. “It has affected his mental health and his working life.”

The victim said the trauma had affected his “ability to operate on a day-to-day basis… My means to trust others has been diminished.”

“I lived for years in the darkness,” he continued. “I felt I would never be able to escape other than through self-inflicted pain.”

“He infiltrated our family under a guise but now this deception has been torn away for everyone to see,” he wrote, but added: “I still have much to do to come to a form of freedom that I will be happy with.”

Stephen Beck was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Monday, June 17, having been found guilty of 15 sex offences after a trial in April (Image: Charles Thomson)

Barrister Kate Chidgey, who defended Beck at trial and mitigated during Monday’s sentencing, asked that he be given credit for his “previous good character before these offences were committed”.

She added that it should also be to his credit that “he then did not reoffend”. 

Mrs Chidgey said Beck had waited almost five years after his 2019 arrest to finally stand trial.

“He is 73,” she said. “He is to turn 74 in July.”

She said there was “an element of fragility” about Beck, who suffered from sciatica and a “recurrent pain in his wrist” after being hit by a bus several years ago. He also had anxiety, she said.

Judge Charles sentenced Beck to seven years for abusing the boy at ages 13 and 14, then another five years consecutive for abusing the boy from the age of 15 onwards.

“You will serve up to two-thirds of your sentence in custody,” she said. “You will serve the rest on licence."

Beck will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and will also be the subject of a lifelong Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning unsupervised communication with children.

Praising the victim’s bravery, Judge Charles said: “One hopes the sentence that has just been imposed enables [him] to obtain some form of closure.”