One of Highgate Wood School’s famous alumni has spoken out about the “hideous predilections” of teachers there in the 1970s.

Robert Peston, the BBC’s economics editor said the recent jailing of the school’s former PE teacher, Andrew Adams, for sexual abuse had made him re-examine his “fond memories”.

Adams, 68, pleaded guilty to charges of abusing and  indecently assaulting a pupil at Highgate Wood School  in the 1980s and was sentenced to 12 years in jail last month.

In a piece written for the Times today, Mr Peston said: "Goodness knows how many other paedophiles were for years able to get away with it in schools just like mine."

Remembering a teacher who invited boys to urinate into a cup in front of him, he said: "Everybody in my year and adjacent years knew it was happening.

"The more confident, savvier kids, like me, steered clear. But for reasons that I don’t fully understand today, I never told my parents or any teacher about any of this.

"Looking back on it, I think I was worried that somehow I would get the boys who went into the teacher’s sinister cubbyhole into trouble; that they would be embarrassed and punished."

The journalist said the sentencing of Andrew Adams had brought memories of his time at the school to the surface.