‘The world is so cruel’: boy’s father tells Coroner’s Court of family’s pain after latest tragic case
Open to questioning: the £47,000 per year Whitgift School has been rocked by a series of safeguarding scandals over the last 18 months
The John Whitgift Foundation, a registered charity which has been providing alms and education in Croydon since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is facing the greatest crisis in its 400-year history after a second suicide, this involving a “gifted” 16-year-old pupil, was linked to one of its large independent schools.
Inside Croydon reported earlier this year how the Metropolitan Police had to be called in to Whitgift School in South Croydon after at least one member of staff was found to have hacked into the school’s database to access contact details for former pupils. A former teacher committed suicide last year after being caught up in a scandal involving “catfishing”.
Since that investigation, Christopher Ramsey, the head of the 1,400-boys school, announced in January that he would be leaving this summer. Sources close to the Foundation and Whitgift School have assured Inside Croydon that the departure of Ramsey, as was exclusively revealed by this website, is entirely unconnected with the latest set of abuse claims.
Leaving: Whitgift head since 2017, Christopher Ramsey
Ramsey, a linguist by vocation and a Spanish speaker, is to become head of an international school in Madrid.
Whitgift School is one of three private schools run by the Whitgift Foundation, the owners of the town centre shopping mall and the borough’s biggest land owners. The Whitgift Foundation is registered as a charity and is closely connected to the Church of England: according to its most recent annual report lodged with the Charity Commission, eight of its Court of Governors were appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Old Palace School, another of the Foundation’s fee-paying schools, is being wound-down ready for closure in 2025, with its primary school on Melville Avenue set to close this July.
And the Foundation, the borough’s biggest landowners, continues to limp along without a full-time chief exec, all the while trying to manage its books with much-diminished income because of Westfield’s 12-year delay to the regeneration of the town centre shopping mall and offices.
But the tragic death in October 2022 of one of Whitgift School’s pupils, Dinal De Alwis, has caused further shock and concern for parents at all the Foundation’s schools.
South London Coroner’s Court ruled last month that De Alwis, a “gifted” and “caring” GCSE pupil at the school, had taken his own life after he had been blackmailed over nude photographs.
“Based upon the findings presented in this inquest, including the CCTV, the iMessages Dinal received, the Google searches he made, and the goodbye messages he sent to his family, I find that he did intend to take his own life,” Assistant Coroner Sian Reeves said in her summing up.
A post-mortem found De Alwis had suffered “extensive fractures to the skull” and “corresponding injuries to the brain”. No drugs or alcohol were detected in his system.
The Coroner made a point of stating that De Alwis and his parents were completely blameless in the tragic sequence of events.
Blackmailed: Dinal De Alwis, who died aged 16
The Met Police had found messages, sent to De Alwis using a virtual private network, threatening to pass two nude photos to “all of his followers” unless he paid £100. Detectives told the court that the blackmailer was “probably based in Nigeria”.
The court heard that Dinal’s mother, father, and two brothers had received “goodbye” messages in the early hours of October 27, 2022.
Kaushallya De Alwis, his father, told the inquest that they had reported Dinal missing.
“Dinal was the most caring son. He was bright. He got straight A*s in all of his subjects at GCSEs and was top of the school for English and Economics,” he said.
“We come from Sri Lanka, so we were so proud to hear he was so good at English. He was brave. He played for the football and rugby teams at Whitgift School. He never asked for anything from us. He was always happy with what he had.
“His loss is the biggest possible loss. It is so incredibly painful. He was our golden boy. The fact that he ended his life in this way…
“The world is so cruel.”
Detailing her verdict, Coroner Reeves said: “I want to start by saying I have been particularly moved by the evidence of Dinal’s father. The world has lost a bright star – a boy gifted both academically and in sports.
“On October 27, 2022, at around 3.20am, Dinal climbed a multi-storey building clad with scaffolding. Around five minutes later, CCTV captures Dinal descending from the building and landed on the ground.
“Sadly, he sustained unsurvivable injuries. Based upon the findings presented in this inquest, including the CCTV, the iMessages Dinal received, the Google searches he made, and the goodbye messages he sent to his family, I find that he did intend to take his own life.
“I say that with no criticism to Dinal. He died from multiple injuries sustained from a jump at height. I record a conclusion of suicide.”
The Met has previously confirmed to Inside Croydon that they began a separate investigation over safeguarding concerns at Whitgift School in January 2023, after parents reported lewd messages and photographs of semi-naked teachers were being exchanged on social media.
Members of staff were accused of hacking into Whitgift School’s computer records to get contact details for past pupils. One teacher was dismissed, another resigned.
Concerns had begun after images from an account that appeared to be connected to a teacher started to circulate on social media. As well as containing pictures of one member of staff in a state of undress, the posts made serious allegations about two other teachers at Whitgift.
Victim: Dr Kevin Ralley
It was claimed one was messaging former students “by getting their number off school systems” and sending them “very explicit content”. It suggested another was “adding students and ex-students on social media by catfishing and trying to get inappropriate content”.
“Catfishing” is the practice of using someone else’s pictures to create a fake social media account.
During the course of the school’s own investigation, Whitgift asked to speak to Dr Kevin Ralley, a former member of staff. Ralley had, without his knowledge or permission, been mentioned in some of the lurid messages on WhatsApp.
Ralley declined to take part in the school’s investigation, but the implications weighed so heavily on him that in April last year he took his own life. Ralley was 38.
Dr Ralley was teaching at KCS Wimbledon at the time of his death, but still had a home in Leon House in South Croydon.
While the Whitgift safeguarding investigation was being conducted, the school and the Foundation did nothing to advise parents of what was taking place. They did hire an expensive PR agency to handle their “crisis management”, though.
It was not until six months after the police investigation began that Whitgift wrote to parents, prompted into their action by enquiries from newspaper journalists.
“All of these matters have been thoroughly investigated,” the letter to parents said.
“The investigation was closed with no further action,” the police said, as “no offences were identified” – there were no minors involved.
Whitgift, whose high-profile former pupils include BBC Director General Tim Davie, Derren Brown the illusionist and rugby player Danny Cipriani, were clearly very concerned about the school’s reputation, as last summer one of their ex-teachers was in the dock facing charges of child abuse stretching back 40 years.
Property tycoons: 16th Century charity has become a 21st Century property business
Paul Dodd, a history teacher and rugby coach at Whitgift in the 1980s, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court last year to one offence of child cruelty and two of indecent assault on boys aged 10 to 12.
After first being handed a suspended sentence, the Appeal Court later ruled that Dodd should go to jail for four years.
Solicitors Leigh Day, acting on behalf of Dodd’s victims, have been considering civil cases against Whitgift School for the abuse inflicted by the former teacher.
“Dodd’s crimes were unforgivable, and our thoughts are with those impacted by them,” a spokesperson for the school and the Foundation said.
Read more: Another Whitgift shock as second head teacher decides to quit
Read more: Former Whitgift teacher given 4-year sentence for child abuse
Read more: Chief exec stands down from struggling Whitgift Foundation
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