Brit teacher cleared of seducing 16-year-old pupil

LONDON - A British schoolteacher has expressed her elation after being cleared of seducing a 16-year-old pupil.

A pupil had accused Hannah McIntyre, 25, of taking his virginity after a series of drunken games of dare at her flat where he had gone with two friends.

The incident was alleged to have happened after the sixth former, now an 18-year-old university student, visited McIntyre at her flat with two friends “for a laugh”.

He claimed they shared a passionate kiss after she bought them cider and joined in a game of dares as they chatted and watched TV one Friday night in January 2008.

He added that he later followed her to bed where they had sex. Yet he failed to report the incident for 11 months.

“It was the first time I had had sex. I was pretty down about it,” the Daily Express quoted him as telling the jury at Liverpool Crown Court.

But McIntyre gave a different account of that night and told of an evening of terror.

“They barged in. They were very loud and boisterous. They were invading my space - going through my possessions and mocking anything they could find,” she said.

“I asked them to leave but they did not take any notice. I was trying to be non-confrontational - not trying to provoke anything,” she revealed.

She said she told them she had to go to the shop in the hope that they would leave but they followed her and persuaded her to buy them cider.

Even then they did not leave her alone but followed her back to her flat. She claimed the boy then followed her to bed and made sexual grunting and sighing noises as a joke.

“The next thing I knew I was being kissed by him. I was not aware of any discussions. I was just stunned to start with and then pretty repulsed,” she stated.

After a four-day trial, a jury took just 75 minutes on April 15 to clear McIntyre, of Waterloo, Liverpool, of unlawful sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

Immediately after the verdict, Judge Robert Warnock told her she was free to leave the dock and she ran into the arms of her boyfriend Richard and parents Irene and Harry.

“I am ecstatic at the verdict. Right now I never want to be in the company of a school pupil for the entirety of my life. I need to have a large drink and sleep for a week,” she said outside court.

She was asked if she was angry to have been put through such an ordeal.

“I do not think anger is the first thing on my mind but he has, without any accountability, made this accusation. I would like him to realise what effect this has had on me,” she said. “I had a job that I loved, that I do not have. I had a reputation which was good, which I do not have,” she stated.

McIntyre taught her accuser at the 8,000 pounds-a-year Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School in Crosby, Merseyside, one of the best-performing independent schools in the country. (ANI)