Music teacher in court on rape charge

Malcolm Layfield sent for trial at crown court over allegation that he raped 18-year-old former Chetham's pupil in 1982

A music teacher has appeared in court in Manchester charged with raping an 18-year-old former pupil.

Malcolm Layfield, former head of strings at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, is accused of raping the woman between 1 June and 1 September 1982, the summer after she left Chetham's school of music, where Layfield was a teacher.

The 62-year-old spoke only to confirm his full name, John Malcolm Layfield, and his date of birth. His lawyer, Matthew Claughton, told Manchester magistrates court that his client had no permanent address and was currently living on a canal boat.

The district judge Mark Hadfield told Layfield that the charge he faced was too serious to be tried at the magistrates court, and sent him for trial at Manchester crown court, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for 4 September.

Layfield was granted bailed on the condition that he contacts neither the complainant nor four other named prosecution witnesses.

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