Jailed head protests innocence

Colleen McCabe denied she had lied in court

A head teacher convicted of stealing £500,000 of her school's funds has protested her innocence from prison.

Colleen McCabe, 51, denied stealing the money from the Catholic St John Rigby College in West Wickham, south-east London and said she was shocked by the guilty verdict.

The jury was told she had spent £7,000 on shoes.

But McCabe insisted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she had bought the footwear for her pupils.

"I didn't steal the money," she said.

"I used the credit cards as I believe everybody had agreed and I paid that back. I think I was very stupid in that I did not get receipts.

I didn't concentrate on the finances perhaps as I should, that is my fault Colleen McCabe

"But I love the place. I suppose I spent my life with children and I did not really think about it, I just wanted to make sure they had the best."

Former teachers and pupils filled the courtroom to hear her being sentenced for theft and deception at Southwark Crown Court on 1 September.

Her trial heard she spent thousands on furniture, electrical goods, designer clothes, jewellery, nights out and holidays while the school had a library full of empty shelves and teachers had to clean their own classrooms.

But McCabe, who is in Winchester Prison, told the BBC: "I wasn't involved in any kind of fraud whatsoever.

"Over the six years yes, money has been spent on shoes, but the only thing that wasn't made clear was that those shoes were sizes four to 12, that they were boys' and girls' [shoes]. Those things were bought for the children."

'Tissue of lies'

She denied the children and classrooms had been neglected and said money had been spent on things like wine, rather than cups of tea, for parents' evenings.

"I didn't concentrate on the finances perhaps as I should, that is my fault. At the end of the day a lot of it is whether you are liked by the jury," she said.

Judge Christopher Elwen said McCabe had told a "tissue of lies" and was "self satisfied, manipulative and mendacious".

He rejected defence pleas for him to pass a suspended sentence although he did take into account her depressive illness and medical problems.

Solicitors acting for McCabe, from Sidcup, south-east London are appealing over the length of her five-year sentence.

The London Borough of Bromley is trying to recover some of the money from McCabe through the High Court.