This Morning star Phillip Schofield has released a statement after his brother Timothy Schofield was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy over a period of three years.
The presenter, 61, shared a statement following the verdict on his Instagram stories.
It read: "My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family.
"I hope that their privacy will now be respected.
"If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my sibling, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family.
"These are despicable crimes, and I welcome the guilty verdicts. As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother."
Timothy Schofield, 54, was charged with 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019.
A jury at Exeter Crown Court found him guilty of all counts with a majority of 10-2 after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
He denied the charges but was convicted of three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, three of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, three of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child.
Schofield has been remanded in custody by Judge Mrs Justice Cutts ahead of sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on May 19.
Jurors at the Crown Court heard previously the defendant told his elder brother Phillip in September 2021 that he and the complainant had watched pornography together.
The boy, who alleged the offending started when he was 13, told the jury he felt “emotionally blackmailed” by Schofield and “forced” to participate in sexual activity.
He said: “I felt that emotionally there was no escape from what we had to do and I felt that there was a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation for me to fulfil what was being asked and wanted.”
Phillip also told the court in a written statement how his brother had phoned him in an agitated and upset state, and Mr Schofield had invited him to drive to his home in London.
The court heard they spent several hours talking, including eating a meal, before he went to do the washing-up.
He told how his brother said “You are going to hate me for what I am about to say”, with him assuring him there was nothing he could say that would do that.
Mr Schofield said in the statement: “Then he said that he and (the boy) had time together and that last year they had watched porn … and (masturbated)”.
“I turned and said, ‘What did you just say?’ He said it was last year and we were alone together. Tim said it was just this once. I told him it should never happen again. He then started to tell me about (the boy’s) body.
“I said, ‘F***, stop’. I shouted at Tim that he had to stop. I didn’t want to know any of the details but he made it sound like a one-off. I said, ‘I don’t want you to tell me any more’. I said, ‘You’ve got to stop, just never do it again. Regardless how that happened, it must never happen again’.”
Giving evidence during the trial, the defendant told the jury he had been gay his “entire life” but had kept it “completely secret and hidden from everybody”.
He described this as “incredibly difficult” and told the court he had struggled with mental health problems for years.
The defendant wept as he was asked about phoning his famous brother before driving to his home in London.
Peter Binder, representing Schofield, asked: “You told him you were on the verge of killing yourself?”
Schofield wept as he said: “That’s correct. I was so alone," and claimed the teenager was “old enough” to choose to watch pornography with him.
Schofield admitted searching for terms on a legal pornography website including “young boy teen sex” and “gay teen torrents”, but claimed he believed this would return results showing men aged between 18 and their early twenties.
He denied the charges but was convicted of three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, three of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, three of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child.
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