A teacher who had a “full-blown sexual relationship” with a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for 16 months.<\/p>\n
Alice McBrearty, 23, admitted the four-month fling with a pupil she taught at an east London school.<\/p>\n
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard McBrearty kissed the youngster in a classroom, and had sex with him at her parents’ home in Wanstead Park, east London.<\/p>\n
She pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the relationship began when the teacher sent the boy a friend request on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Barrister Lisa Matthews said the teenager, who cannot be named, “felt special” and “appeared to be besotted” with McBrearty.<\/p>\n
The court heard the pair met in several locations, including a hotel room McBrearty had booked, and had sexual contact.<\/p>\n
Their relationship ended when the boy’s father contacted police.<\/p>\n
McBrearty put her head in her hands and sobbed when she was sentenced by Judge Sheelagh Canavan.<\/p>\n
The judge described her as a “bright, intelligent and gifted young woman, who knew right from wrong,” but who had committed the “grossest breach of trust”.<\/p>\n
“You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I accept he was consenting – what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?<\/p>\n
“I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn’t matter. But it did.<\/p>\n
“You were supposed to keep him safe, to help him make the right decisions. Instead, you helped him make all the wrong ones.”<\/p>\n
Emma Shafton, defending, said her client, who is no longer a teacher, has had “a spectacular fall from grace”.<\/p>\n
“She has been utterly disgraced by this,” she added.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"