Former teacher jailed for grooming pupil for sex – Chris Hewertson prosecuted for the Crown
Part of wider Operation Stonecrop prosecuted by Chris Hewertson.
The defendant was Head of History, aged 46, at the time he had sex with his Year 13 female student, aged 17, in December 2005. The defendant had been the form tutor of the victim during her Year 12 and was acutely aware of her particularly vulnerabilities and difficult home life. The Crown’s case was presented in a trial that lasted 8 days which involved evidence from the victim, several of her school friends from 20 years ago and a Priest based at a central Southampton parish near to St Anne’s Girl’s School and Sixth Form.
The defendant’s case was that the victim was a fantasist who had caused false rumours of a relationship between them to spill out in January 2006. The complicating feature in the case was that the victim, out of loyalty, moved to protect the defendant in 2006 and denied any relationship, stating that there had been a misunderstanding and any relationship had been with a doorman of a club.
The new Op Stonecrop investigation from 2023 gained much more detailed accounts from the victim who set out particular features and recollections from being inside the defendant’s flat, how he had groomed her on MSN Messenger and successfully sought naked images from her.
It was only between conviction for the section 16 offence – sexual activity when in a position of trust (teacher) – and section 17 offences that the defendant admitted his lies in a probation report. his account was still partial and self-serving and, as stated by the judge, HHJ Bowes KC, “without genuine remorse.”
The Crown, after three sets of written sentencing submissions, persuaded the Court that this was a sentence that exhibited exceptional harm features. The starting point for a top category 1A offence was 18 months imprisonment. The court imposed a 4 year term on this Count (more than twice the starting point) and an additional 2 year consecutive term for thesection 17 offence of causing or inciting sexual activity when in breach of a position of trust – the ‘sexting’.
Therefore, despite a statutory maximum term of 5 years for any single section 16 or 17 offence, the Crown achieved an outside-Guidelines combined term of 6 years imprisonment where consecutive sentences were found appropriate.
The bravery and eloquence of the victim was a hallmark of this case. The defendant was a persistent and convincing liar who was ultimately seen through by the jury.
Ex-teacher jailed for grooming pupil for sex at Southampton school – BBC News
