'Loner' teacher, 29, jailed for having lesbian affair with 15-year-old pupil she contacted via internet chatroom
By Chris Brooke
Last updated at 12:38 AM on 9th December 2010
Jailed: Teacher Louise Yeoman had a lesbian affair with a pupil
Louise Yeoman, 29, 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, and she was jailed yesterday for 20 months.
Yeoman, who taught the pupil, had sex with her in her flat after they began chatting online and exchanging text messages, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Sentencing, Recorder Adrian Waterman QC said: ‘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.
‘You are the one who bore the responsibility for preserving those boundaries.
'You were the one who failed to do so and who abused the trust placed in you. Whatever your feelings, this was not about love and a normal relationship.
‘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.’
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.
At first, the pair talked over the internet about schoolwork. Then, while on holiday, the pupil sent Yeoman a text message saying she loved her. Yeoman replied that she wanted to be with the teenager.
The pupil then visited the teacher’s flat in Wakefield with a friend where they drank tea and talked.
In January 2009 the pair met in a park and Yeoman took the girl back to her flat, kissed her on the sofa and touched her.
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The affair finally came to light during a writing workshop school trip in March this year when teachers found messages to the pupil on Yeoman’s phone and read their declarations of love for each other and a reference to a sexual incident.
To hide the affair the teenager had Yeoman’s number in her phone under the name Luke and her mother assumed she had a boyfriend of her own age.
Yeoman was later arrested and admitted what had happened only after DNA evidence was discovered.
Mr Ritchie said she then told police sexual activity had taken place eight or nine times, adding: ‘She had always considered herself heterosexual and never had feelings like this for a girl.’
Yeoman admitted ten sexual offences including performing sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and breaching a position of trust.
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.
Jon Wilkinson, mitigating, said Yeoman was a loner who had only had one other sexual encounter and was surprised such a pretty and popular pupil could be interested in her.
‘Though she clearly understands that what she did was wrong, it’s quite apparent that she was craving affection,’ he said.
Sue Johnson, of Wakefield Council’s schools service, said after the case: ‘As soon as the school became aware of this situation the teacher was immediately suspended and we began working with West Yorkshire Police.’
Yeoman was sacked after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.
The teacher was disqualified from ever working with children again and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years.
The judge also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, banning her from contacting the girl for five years.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336822/Louise-Yeoman-jailed-lesbian-affair-student-15-contacted-chatroom.html#ixzz17ko1YZNu
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