A teacher at a school in Belfast is to stand trial later this year on sexual offences she is accused of committing against a male pupil.
The defendant, who turned 33 today and who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared at Belfast Crown Court where she denied a total of 11 charges.
Accompanied in the dock by her solicitor, Adrian Harvey, the accused confirmed her identity to a court clerk and was then arraigned on charges which span a four-month period and relate to the same teenage complainant.
She was charged that, between March 1 and May 17, 2024, she communicated with a child “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification”.
When asked how she pleaded, the defendant replied: “Not guilty.”
The teacher was then charged with two counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming over the same time period, pleading “not guilty” to both charges.
The defendant also denied two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; two counts of intentionally engaging in sexual touching involving penetration with a child; and one count of causing a child to look an at image of a person engaging in sexual activity “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification”.
It is the Crown’s case that these charges were committed between March 1 and May 17, 2024.
The teacher was then charged with two counts of possessing an indecent image of the teenage pupil on May 17, 2024, to which she entered “not guilty” pleas.
In addition, a charge of perverting the course of justice between June 13-27, 2024 — namely making a false allegation of sexual assault against the teenager — was levelled at the accused.
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When asked how she pleaded to this charge, she replied: “Not guilty.”
The accused’s barrister, Laura Ivers KC, told Judge Patricia Smyth that the defence was seeking forensic and psychiatric reports ahead of the commencement of the trial.
Although no further details about the alleged offending emerged during today’s arraignment, Mr Harvey told a previous court hearing that his client claims she was a victim in the encounters with the teenager.
At this prior hearing, the solicitor said his client “is also a complainant in relation to these proceedings” and confirmed she had been suspended from the school where she taught and the teenager attended.
After all the charges were put to the defendant today, Judge Patricia Smyth set the trial date as November 4, 2024.
The Belfast Recorder also agreed to a defence request that the defendant be released on continuing bail.
by BelfastTelegraph
11 comments
Paedo cunt
Happy birthday to the defendant
[deleted]
Absolutely shocking! This would never have happened back in my day! There’s no way we would have told anyone about the teacher!
Disgusting ‘pro child abuse’ comments in this thread.
“his client claims she was a victim in the encounters with the teenager” That’s a dirty action. Whatever about trying to get yourself off the hook or minimise your actions, accusing him of a crime to try and muddy the waters is rotten.
.not defending anyone on the thread maybe immature male responses would be the case I doubt if the gender reversed the would find it so platitable
Always seems to be female teachers nowadays that get in trouble for this
A female teacher having sex with a male student is an abuse of power and just as wrong as the reverse.
Expose her wtf