Too feel devastated for the wife of the teacher who has run off to France with his 15 year old pupil?

[chipsandmushypeas]

What on earth went through his head when he decided to do this?! The poor woman has taken all her social networks down out of humiliation I presume. link

Crazy.

More to the point, a teacher would almost never "have a reasonable belief" that a 15 year old was 16.

In any case I think it would be illegal to have a sexual relationship with your pupil if they were under 18. All child protection procedures apply to under 18s not under 16s.

:( what make people cheat i just don't get it. What makes it worse is that it is with a 15 year old.

I cannot imagine what his wife and children are going through, yet I feel more sadness and desparation at what the poor girl's parents are suffering.

As for him, I feel nothing but utter contempt. He was in a position of trust; someone the girl, and his parents, should be able to trust. Words are cheap here, but he is despicable. I cannot imagine what his family, and the girl's family are enduring now

Just read the Daily Mail comments on this story and am completely baffled. Expected them to be about 99% STRING THE BASTARD UP but feels like half of them are saying why didn't they just wait another year - yeah, because that would make it FINE

Also just reads the story on the DM, seems he groomed her with lots of so called romantic tweets allegedly meant for her "Im sinking like a stone in the sea, Im burning like a bridge for your body" is one such gem.

This couple live in a village just down the road from me. Just realised that I know his wife. She took a couple of very good pictures of us at the Torch Relay and, as another photographer, I've had brief conversations with her. God knows what she's going through right now.

It remains a mystery why some men behave like this though. My ex-h was a teacher and the idea of being involved with a pupil was as mysterious to him too. Sadly, it isn't that unusual though.

And it goes without saying there is no need for his wife to feel embarrassed but she will be Im sure, its quite a public humiliation.

When I was 14and a half, my best friend was 16, we ran around with her cousin who was 18 and in the local uni.

One of his mates asked me out after a family party, I said yes we were about half an hour in to the date when I made a comment which caused him to check my age. Turned out he was 20, and had assumed I was 18/19.

Bless him he was horrified.

I'm telling this as this was a young guy who had a (what I realise now was a very young girl) in thrall to him. I thought I was so very grown up.

So we have a 20 year old who has never had any safe guarding etc lessons who realised that a relationship with a girl of 14 was very very wrong.

A teacher will have had so much input about inappropriate relationships etc to have done this is beyond the pale.

I feel sorry for all the parties involved, the girl, her parents, his wife they have all been betrayed.

Sorry I meant to say the 20 year old promptly delivered me home and stayed away.

This was a guy who could have argued that he thought I was 18/9. After all, all his friends had assumed I was too.

So this was a teacher who knew her age. . .

Guy I went out with on one date, good guy, this teacher, scum.

"Even if you were right, Skippy, he's over 23"

Yes I know, I was just refuting GoldShip's statement that

"The age of consent is 16 so how is it not rape?"

Clearly the law believes that a child of 15 CAN consent, since as I explained in special circumstances it can be lawful to have sex with a child of 13, 14 or 15.

So smellslikecatpee's best friend's mate, had he not asked/had reason to question smellslikecatpee's age, would have had a defence to any charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Rape is not an appropriate term for this teacher.

In law it would be 'unlawful sexual intercourse' (if applicable), and/or 'abuse of a position of trust'.

I guess there are other kinds of unlawful sexual intercourse too, that would not be rape.

There was a similar case in Scotland, teacher and student. But they didn't run away together and either weren't found out or didn't go public with it until she was 16 and he was 40. He had never been married before or fathered any children, but married her and they had a daughter together.

Her family were furious, though, quite rightly.

It's a fine line, and this man did not have a wife or any children involved but still . . . eeewww.

I feel very sorry for her parents, especially.

It's awful. And it seems very common. It certainly happened in my school, the RE teacher had an affair with a 6th former he taught, although he did actually marry her.

And the English teacher had a pretty bad reputation too.

happened with 2 teachers in my school, one now in prison.

I had an affair with a married now professor when I was 19 and he was 43. Though it wasn't illegal, it wasn't one of my finer moments and looking back, he used all his usual crap to get my knickers off and I fell for it, despite being what I thought was relatively sophisticated at the time.

At 15, I'd not have stood a chance.

This man took advantage and it's wrong. I feel for the girl's parents and also his wife and children.

I was still pretty immature when I was 30, but even then I wouldn't have touched certain people because I knew they were vulnerable.

That's why there are laws in place, because people the age of this girl believe they are able to make good decisions about relationships like this, but in reality they are not.

I wasn't, even then and faced with a man from such a background as his, such a career and position as he had. I couldn't see, that he was using cliches.

And I was 19 and not a virgin.

Is what he has done actually illegal though? as having sex at age 15 in France is legal. Maybe he has found a loophole in the law by taking her there?

Am I the only one with Police lyrics in my head? "don't stand so close to me"

Christ some of the attitudes on this thread make me sick.

The minimising of what he has done, "silly man"; "mistake" "hope he comes to his senses"

He is a pedophile, he has coerced a child half his age into a "relationship". Revolting.

Whilst the wife has my sympathies I feel desperately sorry for the parents of the young girl who is now missing. What sort if disgusting excuse for a man (and a father himself) puts another set of parents through this horror.

And I hope it goes without saying that I feel genuine sadness for the young girl who has been taken advantage of in a most appalling manner. It will be very difficult for her to move on from this

Daily mail are fucking idiots, they printed their wedding photo, the caption read the teachers name believed to be with his wife. It was a photo of them drinking champagne in the wedding car. Who the fuck else was it likely to be! Oh and I think I read somewhere that they got married last year. That poor woman, those poor parents, that poor child.

bp300 Mon 24-Sep-12 02:55:10
Is what he has done actually illegal though? as having sex at age 15 in France is legal. Maybe he has found a loophole in the law by taking her there?

Erm how about taking a 15 year old away from her parents and out of the country without permission?

If he was a stranger she met on the Internet would that he ok too? How about if he was 40/50 rather than just 30?

Why don't people view this as a case of grooming? Is it because it's a teacher and no-one wants to believe this could happen closer to home? It does happen in schools. I bet most of us have a story they could tell. I certainly know one albeit from a neighboring school I did know the girl involved.

He should never be allowed to teach again. It is made very clear to us where our professional boundaries lie.