Idit Arad calls for better protection for music students as London college admits failing in its duty of care to her

It should have been the start of a great career in classical music for Idit Arad. Everything was lining up for the talented 18-year-old opera singer. She had arrived in London from Israel in 1987, the proud winner of a sought-after scholarship to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. But instead of building the foundations of a successful future, she was singled out by a tutor 20 years her senior for a long period of obsessive attention and abuse.

Paul Roberts pursued her from their first lesson, Arad says, inviting her for coffee and then for a dinner to discuss her talent, before sending a stream of explicit letters, calling her a “witch” and urging her into sexual intimacy. Senior leadership, it is now admitted, knew of their involvement and yet failed to discipline Roberts.