God almighty. 44 year old teacher has sex with 16 year old pupil and is spared prison

The man in this case was 44 and even if he wasn't her teacher I'd be saying it was dodgy as fuck TBH. That is a massive age gap and 16 (15 when they started) is very young.

If I knew a man in my home town or work who was 44 and even snogged a 15/16 yo I'd think he was revolting and probably a bit of a perve.

Just my opinion there, unrelated to the law. But I don't understand really how anyone could think, hmm, 44 yo married man and 15 yo schoolgirl, yes that seems perfectly normal, fine and above board to me, best let them get on with it

Well yes, two 15 year olds is a different matter than an adult in a position of trust.

The laws around consent have an area in them between 16 and 18 where (well between younger than 16 and 18 really) where there is allowance for prosecution due to power imbalances etc.

This is to recognise that while it is in no-ones interests to prosecute 2 15yo having consensual sex, while under 18 you are still very young, so leaves the door open for prosecution where there is power differential etc.

It is not as simple as "it is always legal for a man to have sex with a 16 yo girl" it is more complicated than that, because our society via our law says well actually there are times when it is not OK.

One of the times which is specified in law as not being OK is in a student teacher relationship:

"In relation to many other offences there is no requirement to prove an absence of consent. Only the act itself and the age of the victim or other criteria need to be proved. They include:

rape of a child under 13
assault by penetration of a child under 13
sexual assault of a child under 13 and
inciting or causing a person to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13
child sexual offences involving children under 16
children under 18 having sexual relations with persons in a position of trust
children under 18 involved with family members over 18
persons with a mental disorder impeding choice
persons with a mental disorder who are induced threatened or deceived
persons with a mental disorder who have sexual relations with care workers"

As you can see by the other offences it is grouped with, it is considered to be an extremely serious offence.

If you would like the law changed then the thing to do is raise it with your MP.

Oh dear viv.... You're the reason that I think he age of consent should be upped to 18. And 15 year olds are not old enough to do any of those things by the way. You absolute grimmer.

Vivienne, there's a particular law which extends the restrictions on having sex with 16 and 17 year olds to those in a position of trust to those teenagers. So absolutely the whole discussion is "just because he was her teacher"

Really viv?

I think he should go to prison because he WAS her teacher.

She's old enough to have sex, marry and join the army, he shouldn't go to prison just because he was her teacher.

This makes me incredibly angry. I wonder whether the judge's opinions would change should it be their daughter involved?

How do you complain?

Really depressing.

Just ticks so many victim-blaming boxes, many that are especially applied when the victim is a teenaged girl. Exactly the same sort of comments as were made about the girls in Rochester etc. That they were manipulative, knowing, that sort of thing. And going out to snare older men.

The "lessons" that were supposed to be learned from those scandals by the authorities generally have clearly not been internalised by this judge.

My best friend started a relationship with one of our teachers (43) when we were 16. No-one batted an eyelid, they would drive out of the school gates in his car, go out for lunch. Nothing was said, a sign of the times- it was in the 70's. THey eventually married and had kids ( and are still together)

What message does this sound out? They may as well change the law to state that a man can have sex with a girl any age in any circumstances and it will be fine.

I don't just want this case reviewed I want the judge to be struck off and forced to go back to school because quite clearly she is incapable of doing her job or indeed any job where you are required to exercise a certain level of intelligence.

Yes; you can ask the DPP to review the sentence as well.

Is it possible to complain about a judge?

He didn't do anything to encourage her? Apart from say it was written in the stars, bring in a condom, drive her to places to have sex with her? This judge is a complete idiot.

I'm a teacher. It's very easy not to have sex with the kids, as you have the power to tell them to speak to you appropriately, tell them to get out of your classroom, report inappropriate behaviour to your line manager. We have child protection training which we have to update regularly, which reminds us not to have sex with the kids so he can hardly claim to have forgotten.

Did the judge not realise that a 15 year old who pursues a 44 year old teacher clearly has problems? 44 year olds should be wise enough to know that said 15 year old is not bowled over by looks and charm but probably needs attention, has a poor home life and a father issues. She might be intelligent but she's 15. He took advantage of her.

Isn't that why there's the special legal framework for positions of trust - that's the point. If you are trusted, you walk away even if a pupil strips naked and begs you. The level of "temptation" should be irrelevant. It's still burglary if the window is wide open or just ajar; it's still abusing trust whatever the actions of the vulnerable teenager.

FFS.

I am also very glad to see this thread. I was shocked to read this in the news today. The judiciary seems to have taken a huge step backwards today.

Yy, Lightening. Her behaviour is entirely symptomatic of a very vulnerable child whose life will only have been made worse by this betrayal by a trusted adult. And yet she is blamed. It's disgusting.

Shocking beyond words.

What kind of training do judges get in dealing with these kinds of cases? None, I assume, apart from having to simply know and apply the law? Yet even at that, this judge bends the law to suit her misogynistic views.

:(

I'd like to think this will bring the issue to general attention and there will be an outcry. Poor girl. She may have been a willing participant but chances are it will cause her problems

I had a friend who persued (and I mean persued) our very young and good looking chemistry teacher - she was 15, he maybe 22.

He was kind, made it clear it wasn't happening and then took care never to be alone with her. She (and we) were very disappointed at the time but now I look back and think thank f*ck he was professional. Because she was vulnerable and we (her friends) incredibly naive (had anything happened I'm sure we'd have agreed with her that it was true love and not said anything to anyone).

Poor mannikin 'gave way to temptation when he was emotionally vulnerable due to wife's miscarriage'. But the girl 'was vulnerable and needy and had a troubled home life' so it was all her fault. She was intelligent and manipulative: he was not.

Yeah right. Good god above. Judge criticised, I should bloody hope so, isn't there some way of getting this overturned and stopping this judge from presiding over similar cases?

So tempted beyond bearing was he that he called her out of a lesson (presumably not one he was teaching) and took her into a storeroom to have sex, using the condom he had brought with him. Obviously the heat of the moment got to him.

At my all-girls school in the 1980s/90s the male teachers on the receiving end of any sort of crush behaviour made every effort to safeguard themselves and the girls involved. I thought society was meant to have progressed since then too.