A NORTH Yorkshire private music teacher has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his pupils over a 16-year period.

Geoffrey Kitchen, 48, drugged, bound, whipped and indecently assaulted boys aged between nine and 14, York Crown Court heard.

The music teacher also incited a boy to perform a painful sexual act upon him.

Kitchen, of Scalby Way, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to 18 charges of indecent assault and two of incitement to gross indecency. The offences involved ten boy pupils at his home. One boy was assaulted in the 1980s, the rest between 1996 and Kitchen's arrest in November 2002.

His barrister, Anil Murray, said he drugged some of the boys to "enhance pleasure" and not to enable him to indecently assault them.

The honorary recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, adjourned Kitchen's case until March 14 while probation officers assess how much of a risk he would pose after his release from jail. He was remanded in custody.

Outside court, Det Sgt Geoff Carey said of the victims: "It is only because of their courage in coming forward that we have been able to bring about the successful conclusion."

Twenty police officers working with social workers and education officers traced and spoke to more than 100 current and former music pupils of Kitchen, after one boy revealed how he had been sexually assaulted in the 1980s.

Updated: 10:25 Saturday, February 15, 2003