Ex-record label boss who discovered Emeli Sande abused two schoolgirls

A former record label boss, credited with discovering Emeli Sande, abused two girls at a primary school in Glasgow.

John Ansdell, 42, preyed on the pupils between August 2015 and March 2020.

The classroom assistant touched the girls, aged between seven and 11, inappropriately as they played in his “office”, which was a cupboard beside the PE department.

The victims spoke about being alone with Ansdell, who also ran the after-school club, and that he had “favourite” pupils.

Ansdell was convicted of two sexual assaults at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Sheriff David Hall ordered Ansdell, of Kircudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

He was also put under supervision and the sex offenders register for two years.

The sheriff said: “You were convicted after trial of serious offences.

“This conduct was some time ago.

“You are a 42-year-old first offender and I am satisfied there is an alternative to custody available to me which will allow you to remain at liberty.”

The court watched recorded police interviews given by the girls in 2021 when they were around 13.

The first girl said she sat on Ansdell’s lap and that “it wasn’t really normal”.

She later told officers: “I was the only person in my friend group who was valued by Mr Ansdell.”

In another incident, the girl said that she was playing on something similar to a medicine ball in the office when he touched her inappropriately.

She said: “I think I was 11… I thought I would just keep it to myself.”

When asked how she felt, the girl replied: “I knew it was wrong but when you are so young, you get manipulated.”

The girl stated that she went on to tell a few people about what happened to her amid media coverage of the attack on Sarah Everard.

The second girl told police in her interview that Ansdell had been “touchy” with her shoulders and back.

She recalled being on her own with him as she did not have a lot of friends in the after-school club.

The girl said: “His favourites were allowed to go in [to his office] and other children were not allowed to go in.”

She stated that Ansdell kept pictures of the children in his office from the netball team.

She recalled being touched on the bottom by Ansdell.

She said: “Most of the time it would be my shoulders or maybe my back which would lead to my hips – kind of rubbing with his hands.”

The girl claimed that this lasted around five minutes but no more than ten minutes.

When asked how she felt, the girl replied: “I didn’t think about it – I didn’t care. I didn’t feel anything.”

In his evidence, Ansdell told the court that he could have touched one of the girls on the leg on the medicine ball.

He also said that he may have touched the other girl on the shoulder as a way of “reassuring or comforting” her.

When asked by prosecutor Ross Canning about one of the children sitting on his lap, he replied: “Just nonsense – she said this several times.”

Mr Canning asked if the girls came to court to lie about what happened and he said: “I can’t speak to their decision making and thought process about saying what they said.

“I understand things can be perceived or misinterperated which I believe has happened.”

Ansdell later denied being “guilty of anything”.

Ansdell’s offending came nearly two decades after he first discovered pop sensation Emeli Sande online.

He responded to the then-university student’s ad on Gumtree, which resulted in him recording her first tracks together with his Souljawn label.

However, he was unable to release her debut album which became Our Version of Events as he did not have the £5,000 he needed to do so.