Ex-Chetham’s music school teacher facing sex offence charges found dead

A former violin teacher who faced extradition to Britain for allegedly sexually abusing pupils at a prestigious Manchester music school shot himself on Tuesday when United States marshals came to arrest him at his home in Los Angeles.
The marshals found Chris Ling dead from a gunshot wound after they entered his home in Sherman Oaks at about 6am, Laura Vega, a marshals service spokesperson, told the Guardian.
“We attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Christopher Ling and, in the course of that process, he shot himself,” Vega said. “I believe they were making their way to the room where he was and before they got there he shot himself.”
Ling was due to face 72 charges of sex offences against former pupils at Chetham’s school of music, where he taught violin in the 1980s. He had reinvented himself in California as a showbusiness talent manager.
US authorities agreed several weeks ago to extradite Ling, 57, 18 months after Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service sought to bring him back to England.
Marshals did not flag their plan to arrest him but the former teacher appeared to know what their arrival signified. “When we knocked on the door, that was possibly his notification,” said Vega. There was believed to be no one else at home at at the time, she said.

The Los Angeles police department has taken over the investigation. “We are investigating a possible suicide. It’s still a very active scene,” said Norma Eisenman, a department spokesperson. Authorities would give a fuller statement later, she said.
British detectives felt they had a “cast iron” case against Ling. Eleven of his victims had provided witness statements to Greater Manchester police (GMP) and were ready to testify in court. One of the alleged victims was a woman who cleaned his house as a teenager.

Some of the former pupils said Ling had a svengali-like influence at the private school. Several expressed shock on Tuesday after learning of his death. For more than two years, they had awaited his extradition from the US, where he moved in the early 1990s with his young wife Pip, another former Chetham’s pupil.
Some of them reported the abuse they suffered in 1990 but no charges were ever brought, partly because Ling had already left the UK.
After moving to California the former teacher set up a talent agency, CHL Artists Inc, which expanded its roster from conductors and soloists to actors and casting directors. It thrived enough for Ling to drive a black Jaguar, live in a three-storey $2.5m (£1.6m) home in the hills of Sherman Oaks, a plush neighbourhood overlooking the San Fernando valley, and rent an office in Hollywood. The agency called itself the “pre-eminent symphonic management company on the west coast of the United States”.
Hollywood admirers dubbed Ling’s English accent and no-nonsense, didactic style as the “Chris Ling school” of talent management.

The allegations against him resurfaced in 2013 after another Chetham’s teacher, ex-head of music Michael Brewer, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at the school.
Brewer’s victim, violinist Frances Andrade, killed herself in January 2013 after giving evidence against him. After hearing of her suicide, dozens of other former pupils came forward with tales of sexual abuse at the school. More than 15 told their stories to the Guardian.

Detectives from GMP interviewed a number of women who made serious allegations against Ling. Detectives asked him to return to the UK for questioning but he never arrived, despite indicating he might.
When the Guardian asked Ling to respond to the allegations in February 2013, he declined to comment and shut the door. An email and phone message to CHL Artists on Tuesday went unanswered.
The former strings teacher caused an immediate stir in the early 1980s when he arrived at the Chetham’s school of music campus in the centre of Manchester. He wore a white leather jacket, cowboy boots and luxuriant moustache. He loved strong aftershave and fast cars and had a swaggering manner one former Chet’s teacher likened to a “cockney wideboy” – although he was actually from Reading.
Ling was known for putting in extra hours with his pupils, inviting them to attend music courses at his house in Reading during the holidays and treating his students to meals out and drinks in the pub even though they were underage.
Ling was reputed to be a remarkable violin teacher, who quickly garnered a reputation for spotting talented players and inspiring slavish devotion. His colleague Brewer used to refer to his proteges as Ling Strings.