Female teacher who had sex with schoolboy

[NoisyBrickDog]

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16013543/Teacher-sex-schoolboy-blindfolding-prison-convicted-gross-indecency.html

Are we so focused on predatory males in positions of power praying on vulnerable women & girls - that we lose sight of the fact it can happen the other way around.

How many more of these evil women are hiding in the shadows...?

Individual women can of course be predators, criminals etc. It looks like this one will face prison, so the justice system is dealing with her as it would with a male. So I don't think people 'lose sight' of this.
It's just that at population level, most crimes of sex and violence are committed by males.

Hundreds of men get let off or not even investigated for doing much worse than this so I have no idea what your point is.

I don't think a male teacher having sex with a girl student under 14 would be 'let off' - and i don't think that there are 100's of cases where these 'let offs' are happening.

My point is - are we too focused on violence against women & girls and losing sight that boys can be victims too.

In broader terms - if we see a class room of girls with a male teacher, do we start to feel a little uncomfortable and would prefer a female teacher instead?

If we see a class room of boys with a female teacher, are we automatically less concerned?

I just wonder what steps were taken to prevent this poor boy from being prayed on by Franklin - and are we more focused now on VAWG and forgetting boys can be victims too?

It seems it's not uncommon -

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/24430755.wirrral-teacher-jailed-six-half-years-sex-boys/

It is important that all children are protected. I agree OP. But many more girls need protecting than boys. This woman sounds unspeakable and I hope justice is served.

Of course we aren't forgetting that boys can be victims. There isn't even anything all that unusual about boys being victims of terrible sexual abuse. What is unusual is the fact that the perpetrator is a woman. And given that she has actually been arrested and successfully prosecuted, what makes you think we are ignoring this (very rare) occurrence?

Of course these foul crimes can be perpetrated against boys, it’s possible in any scenario where power can be abused. This is why proper safeguarding structures are so critical. However the stats ultimately show far more crimes against girls & young women.
I’d be very interested in genuine “let off”, charging & imprisonment stats on this, with every combination of perpetrator / victims.

To answer your questions: No, youre wrong. Safeguarding training for schools emphasises not making judgments about whether certain people are likely to be predators, and assume anyone can be.

Obviously what she did was wrong, and it is not less wrong than a man doing it. But only a fool or a misogynist wouldn’t recognise that the number of predatory men far outweighs the number of predatory women and this is borne out by the stats year after year. And this is across the board in every form of violence and abuse.

It’s not that we let more women predators off, it’s that there are far, far, fewer of them. Even the number of men who groom and abuse boys is higher than the number of women who do so, let alone when you start counting the men who groom and abuse girls.

I went to a girls school and had male teachers, and my brother and friends went to boy schools and had female teachers. As far as I know, none of them posed any threat, and I certainly wouldn't automatically be concerned if I saw it happening today. I don't see why a teacher would be more likely to attack children if they were all of the opposite sex, is that usually the case? I would have assumed a paedophile teacher could be teaching boys, girls or mixed. I also don't know that the attacks need to be heterosexual; I think the stereotype is of a male teacher predating upon young boys, rather than girls.

Obviously, there are some teachers of both sexes who abuse the children in their care, sexually or otherwise. I think I've actually heard more about females doing it tbh, though I have no idea whether that's representative or whether it's just more likely to make headlines. Either way, I believe it's a very rare occurrence regardless of the sex of teacher or child, and though obviously there should be a determined effort to prevent it, I certainly wouldn't start assuming any teacher has bad intentions because of their sex, or the sex of their students.

What upsets me is that this isn’t rape in the eyes of the law. She groomed him and children under the age of 16 can’t consent but nope, still not rape. She is a paedophile rapist in my eyes and I really do hope she sees the inside of a jail cell.

Women make up 2% of all registered sex offenders.
we have a greater understanding now of sex offending and those in positions of trust. So previously female teachers abusing boys in particularly would probably not have been reported, whereas now they are and dealt with appropriately.
male and female sex offenders have different drivers to offend.

There has been quite afew female teachers, and prison officers having relations with pupils or inmates it’s a lot more common than people think!

Prison officers are often groomed by inmates and believe themselves in relationships with them, despite the officers being in a position of trust.

Who is losing sight of this? When its a woman its all over the front pages.

These offences were prior to the current sexual offences act 2003.

However rape can only be committed using a penis.

If these offences were charged now they would still be very serious offences, not rape.

You are absolutely right.
It is equally unacceptable, but I think most people do realise that?
We all know about nursery staff, both men and women, hurting kids. It's a long time since Myra Hindley could do what she did because we assumed women were better.
I warn my son and daughter equally about risks. A friend studying criminology warned him men are actually attacked more, but they tend to be less likely to report. He was surprised when she told him boys/men are at risk, so maybe there does need to be more education for young people, and more emphasis that women staff are not necessarily safe.
We are aware it goes both ways-domestic violence charities do say that there's more reported cases of violence against women, but one in three is a woman attacking a man (2024-5).

I don’t think anyone loses sight of the fact some women do abuse children…in the media any case where a woman has hurt or killed a child is reported widely, mainly because women behaving violently or in a sexually violent way presumably sells more papers. So I don’t think anyone has taken their eyes off the ball regarding female predators. It’s just that the number of violent women are tiny compared to the number of men who display those traits and commit certain crimes.

However, I do find it vile that when a woman abuses a child or young person the media report it in a tamer or sensationalist way when it’s a boy who has been abused. Look at the headline of the DM link…”Teacher who had sex with school boy…”. She didn’t have sex with him, she groomed him, sexually assaulted and abused him over a period of time. So maybe what I’m trying to say is that we don’t ignore female violence, it’s more that we (as a society) are more dismissive of sexual abuse by a woman when the victim is a boy.

It’s rape, not “having relations” 🤨

The law is wrong; she didn’t have sex with him, she raped him. Your headline is also wrong, OP.

How many more of these evil women are hiding in the shadows...?

You do understand that the answer to this is far, far fewer than the number of evil men who are hiding in the shadows.

There is no excuse for what she did, which is wicked abuse of a very young and vulnerable boy. And yes, soe women are wickedly abusive - I've just been watching the Ruby Franke Jodi Hildebrande documentaries which are harrowing. But it is so much rarer for women to abuse than men, that those who do make the news. So I don't really understand the point you are trying to make.

Is it just as wicked as male abuse? Yes of course it is. No one sane would say otherwise.
Is it just as common? No, not by a long way. No one sane would say otherwise.

I completely agree. The language is softening and condoning rape. That should always be challenged.

@Pistachiocake - where did you find statistics that one in three DV cases is a woman attacking a man? I have seen 1 in 10 (CPS cases and Refuge stats.) 1 in 3 victims of domestic abuse are men, but that doesn't mean the abuser is female.

Perhaps, but as the law stands, she didn't 'rape' him.

What I find astonishing is that the boy was tied to a bed, there were about 8 counts of gross indecency offences acted out upon him as well as numerous counts of sexual intercourse. And this was inflicted upon him by someone in a position of a trust - a teacher!

Yet the judge has said that she '...may...' face a jail term!!!!

So she might just be let off with a fine, or 6 hours community service...?

Are we so focused on predatory males... that we lose sight of the fact it can happen the other way around.

No.

Given that for every one female sexual predator there are just over 24 male sexual predators, we are not.

That doesn't make the crimes any better or worse, nor the victims more or less deserving of justice.