pa.press.net | |
| Monday, 21 September 2009 | |
Teacher jailed over lesbian affair
Teacher jailed over lesbian affair
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pa.press.net |
A public school mistress, who was "pressured" into a lesbian affair by a 15-year-old pupil, wept as she was jailed for 15 months.
Music teacher Helen Goddard - nicknamed "the jazz lady" - befriended the youngster as they met for coffee after lessons.
Their relationship eventually became sexual, a development the youngster's parents scathingly condemned as a "complete betrayal" of trust.
London's Southwark Crown Court heard that the five-month affair included an overnight stay at her home and a romantic weekend in Paris. Their forbidden trysts remained a secret until the school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, received an anonymous tip-off about what was happening. Care workers were immediately contacted and police alerted.
When officers raided the teacher's housing estate maisonette in Thornham Street, Greenwich, south east London, they arrested the 26-year-old and seized various sex toys including vibrators and "fluffy handcuffs".
Goddard, a former child music prodigy, admitted six sample counts of sexual activity with the girl between February and July this year.
The disgraced teacher, wearing a white blouse and a black waistcoat and trousers bowed her head and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes as Judge Anthony Pitts said: "This is a difficult case. The evidence showed you were having a full-on sexual relationship with the girl for many months. She has made it clear that the sexual contact between you was consensual and she says in her statement that in fact it was instigated by her.
"It is, of course, against the law to engage in sexual activity with a person under 16, even with her consent. These are serious offences in their own right. But the particularly aggravating feature evident here of course is that you were her music teacher throughout this period and from well before the sexual relationship started."
That meant a relationship such as theirs remained illegal until after the girl turned 18.
The judge said it was clear from the character references he had received that Goddard had been a "big hit" with her pupils. One of her former colleagues, noticing girls "flocking to her room at break times", said she even warned her of the "dangers of being over-friendly and too popular".
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