Emily Fox was jailed for 15 months for her relationship
with the teenage girl
A lesbian PE teacher
at a leading private school was jailed for 15 months yesterday for sex acts with
a girl of 15.
Emily Fox, 26,
exchanged hundreds of ‘sexually explicit’ messages with the girl.
The pair struck up a
friendship in late 2012 but from Easter last year developed an intense bond that
involved kissing and later sexual touching, a court heard.
Fox was a teacher at
the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire – where fees
are up to £25,000 a year.
The relationship was
discovered in August last year when a revealing email was printed inadvertently
and seen by the parents of the victim, who cannot be named for legal
reasons.
Fox, from Bath, last
month admitted four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child while in
a position of trust.
The first count
related to ‘touching by kissing’, the rest to more intimate
touching.
Sally Mealing-McLeod,
prosecuting, told St Albans Crown Court that contact between the pair began in
November 2012.
She said: ‘Initially
it was what one could really call a friendship. However, that changed around
Easter 2013 and ... became far more intense.’
The prosecutor said
the girl told the teacher ‘she loved her as a friend’.
She said the matter
came to light when the victim tried to print an email but the printer did not
work.
The prosecutor said:
‘A week later the father was using the printer when that document was printed.
It clearly disclosed some sort of relationship.’
The prosecutor said an
‘abundance’ of evidence to support the charges was discovered in WhatsApp
messages between the pair, including ones that were sexually explicit.
‘There are hundreds
and hundreds of those messages,’ she added.
Dee Connelly,
mitigating, said Fox had shown bravery in admitting the offences. She had wanted
to be a teacher from a young age and accepts her career is now
ruined.
Fox took an overdose
in 2011 and suffered depression after her parents moved to America, the court
heard.
Judge Stephen Gullick
told Fox he had no doubt she was a gifted teacher. But he said: ‘You were always
aware that the relationship was not only wrong but also unlawful.’ He said that
this type of behaviour was ‘extremely grave’.
Fox, 26, (pictured left and right) had been teaching at
the school for two years before striking up a friendship with the teenager. She
was sentenced to 15 months in prison at court yesterday after earlier pleading
guilty to various counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child while in a
position of trust
Abuse of trust: Fox was a games teacher at the Royal
Masonic School for Girls in Herfordshire when she had sex with a
student
He sentenced Fox to
concurrent sentences of one month, six months and two of 15 months. She will
also be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
Fox dabbed tears from
her eyes as she sat in the dock. She shrugged to her parents as she left the
court.
The Royal Masonic School for
Girls was founded in 1788. Its buildings have been widely used in films and TV
including two Indiana Jones movies.DAILYMAI.CO.UK
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment