‘Loner’ teacher in UK jailed for lesbian affair with 15-year-old pupil

LONDON - A British teacher has been jailed for 20 months after having a lesbian affair with a teenage pupil.

English teacher Louise Yeoman in her first job had a 14-month affair with the student after initially contacting her through an Internet chat website, reports the Daily Mail.

Leeds Crown Court was told that the 29-year-old teacher was ‘craving affection’ and seduced the ‘pretty and popular’ 15-year-old.

But the illicit relationship was discovered when suspicious colleagues found incriminating text messages on Yeoman’s mobile phone during a school trip.

She was later arrested and admitted what had happened only after DNA evidence was discovered.

She admitted 10 sexual offences including performing sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and breaching a position of trust.

Yeoman, who taught the pupil, had sex with her in her flat after they began chatting online and exchanging text messages.

“You were the teacher, she was the pupil. You were the one in whom trust had been placed to ensure that you would respect the vital boundaries that must exist between adults and children and between teachers and pupils,” Recorder Adrian Waterman QC said.

“Whatever your feelings, this was not about love and a normal relationship,” he added.

“Whatever feelings she had for you, whether you did what you could to cause them or whether they arose spontaneously, you should not have responded in the way you did. It was a violation. You abused her,” said Waterman.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie said Yeoman had been teaching English at a secondary school in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, for a year when she gave the girl her email address and mobile number in October 2008.

Defending lawyer Jon Wilkinson described his client as a ‘loner’ who had only had one other sexual encounter and was surprised such a pretty and popular pupil could be interested in her.

The pupil, now 17, has said she wants nothing to do with Yeoman and is keen to move on with her life, the court heard.

Yeoman has been disqualified from ever working with children again and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

The judge also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, banning her from contacting the girl for five years. (ANI)