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Grand jury said to be examining alleged abuse at Solebury School

A Bucks County grand jury is investigating decades of sexual abuse of former students at the Solebury School, according to three alleged victims who said they had been asked to testify.

A Bucks County grand jury is investigating decades of sexual abuse of former students at the Solebury School, according to three alleged victims who said they had been asked to testify.

The grand jury began its review this month, and is expected to meet every Thursday, the prospective witnesses said.

"I want to let other people to know it happened to me, and I'm willing to come forward," said Peter Robbins, 62, of Albany, who said a teacher at Solebury and his adult friend sexually assaulted him in the late 1960s. "I want the school to be held accountable to what they've done. Not just for me."

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler declined to comment.

The expanding investigation comes two months after the boarding school outside New Hope sent a letter to alumni acknowledging abuse, and apologizing to former students who "were subjected to sexual abuse by adults charged with their care and well-being."

The prosecutor's office said last month that its initial investigation spanned allegations of abuse from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Contacted Thursday, head of school Tom Wilschutz said he was unaware of the grand jury investigation.

"To the best of my knowledge, no one at Solebury School has been contacted regarding the matter," he wrote in an e-mail.

Grand juries, which meet in secret, are often impaneled for complex cases, and can legally compel witnesses to testify. Once an investigation is complete, grand juries can recommend charges to the district attorney. Even when they find no evidence of a prosecutable crime, they can issue a report.

School officials have said that two teachers suspected of abuse are dead, including the school's founder, Robert "Pop" Shaw. Prosecutors said the statute of limitations for criminal or civil action may have expired for older cases.

Carole Trickett, 77, who now lives in Maine, said she would testify that she was sexually abused by Shaw in the 1950s. She said she confronted school officials about the alleged abuse in the late 1990s, long after Shaw's death, and was quietly offered only the cost of future therapy.

Trickett said she had already spent decades in counseling.

"I'm not about revenge," she said last month. "I'm about honoring and taking care [of the victims]. The school didn't take care of me."

A third alleged victim, who attended the school in the 1970s but asked not to be named publicly, also said she had been asked to testify before the panel in Doylestown.

Editors Note: This story was revised to correct the hometown for Peter Robbins. It is Albany, not New York City.

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