A former school welfare officer and army cadet leader from Co Down has been jailed for 18 months for sexually assaulting teenage girls.
Neil Beckett, with an address at Kilmore, near Crossgar, was previously found guilty of 16 counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual grooming.
The offences spanned a period of eight years between 2015 and 2023.
The 44-year-old father-of-one worked as a welfare officer at Lagan College, an integrated secondary school in Belfast.
He was also a leader with the British Army Cadets, a voluntary youth organisation.
In October, following a five-week trial at Belfast Crown Court, Beckett was found guilty of 17 charges against nine teenage girls aged between 12 and 17.
Seven of his victims were sexually assaulted while pupils at Lagan College while two - a 12-year-old and 16-year-old - were members of the Army Cadets.
Beckett was acquitted of raping one of the cadets but was found guilty of sexually grooming her and sexually abusing another.
He was also found not guilty of sexual communication with a child and ten further counts of sexual assault.
Sentencing him at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Philip Gilpin said that Beckett abused his position of trust both at Lagan College and with the Army Cadets.
He said another aggravating factor was the vulnerability of the victims, not just their "tender age" but also their individual circumstances that he was not disclosing in court.
Judge Gilpin imposed a three-year custodial sentence, 18 months of which will be served in jail and 18 months on licence.
The sentence is backdated to when Beckett went into custody and made up of concurrent and consecutive sentences.
The judge also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years and restraining orders for all of the victims for the same period of time.
Beckett was also placed on the register of sex offenders for an indefinite period of time.
One of the victims, a former pupil at Lagan College who wishes to remain anonymous, has spoken out about her ordeal and how Beckett targeted the young girls whom he was supposed to protect.
Detective Inspector Noelle Gray, of the PSNI's Public Protection Branch, said she believes there are other victims of Beckett out there and has appealed to them to come forward.
In a statement, Chair of the Board of Governors at Lagan College Francis Martin said: "Lagan College wishes to acknowledge the courage and bravery of the young people who came forward to their parents and our child protection and safeguarding team, which has now led to the criminal conviction and sentencing of Mr Beckett.
"Throughout this process, Lagan College has fully engaged with the PSNI, the Children and Young People's Service at the Education Authority, and the Public Prosecution Service, outlining how policies and procedures were followed in relation to this serious safeguarding matter."
Additional reporting PA
