Ex-deputy head of Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s school charged with child sex offences 

A former deputy head of Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s £20,000-a-year first school appeared in court today charged with a slew of child sex offences. 

Matthew Smith, 34, was appointed as deputy head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school in Battersea in September last year, after a five-year stint teaching in Nepal.

Smith was arrested by NCA officers at his home in East Dulwich, southeast London, last November. 

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court charged with 17 counts of child sex abuse, including encouraging the rape of a child under 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and arranging the sexual abuse of a child. 

The charges relate to the suspected sexual abuse of children in India via the internet between 2017 and 2022 and do not relate to children at the prestigious school, which costs upwards of £20,000 per year. 

Matthew Smith, 34, who was a former deputy head of Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s £20,000-a-year first school in Battersea appeared in court today charged with 17 counts of child sexual abuse

Thomas’s Battersea prestigious prep school which costs upwards of £20,000 per year

Smith also faces six counts of making and distributing over 120,000 indecent images of children in categories A-C.

He was remanded in custody ahead of a a plea and trial preparation hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 20 June.

Prior to his role at Thomas’s Battersea, Smith was assistant head teacher at the British School in Kathmandu, Nepal, for five years.

He also taught at St Paul’s School, and has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte both attended Thomas’s Battersea up until early last year, when they moved to Lambrook School, near Ascot.

They had left by the time Smith took up his job there.

The school was informed Smith was being investigated by the National Crime Agency on November 7.