Thursday, January 10, 2008

Married woman teacher sacked after mobile phone pictures expose her affair with pupil, 16



A woman teacher was sacked for having a sexual relationship with a teenage pupil, after pictures of the pair were discovered on mobile phones.
Jo Gorman, 28, a married English teacher, was cautioned by police over the "sexual touching" of the 16-year-old boy.
Officers were called to the school when her colleagues learned that the photos of the couple were being passed around on phones by other students.
Their relationship is understood to have lasted five months spanning the summer and autumn of last year.
Mrs Gorman - a former star pupil at the school - was cautioned and suspended from Paignton Community College.
She has now been dismissed after deciding not to appeal against the result of a disciplinary hearing.
She has also been banned from working in any other schools after accepting a police caution for intentionally touching the boy at a time when she was in a position of trust.
When the relationship was revealed at the end of last year Mrs Gorman refused to comment on her alleged activities with the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
She refused to answer the door at her £200,000 house where she lives with her husband Craig, also 28, who works at the school as head of the IT department.
Classmates of the 16-year-old said "everyone" at Paignton Community College in Devon was talking about the affair.
Several pupils claimed the pair had exchanged pictures of each other on their mobile phones.
One male pupil, 16, said: "Everyone knows about it but we're not quite sure exactly what has been going on.
"He seems quite proud of it. He had mobile phone pictures of her and she had some of him and that's how people found out apparently."
A female sixth-former said the pair had been spotted getting into a car together.
She added: "It makes me feel a bit sick to think that one of the teachers had done anything with a pupil.
"They were seen getting into a car together and then we heard about these phone pictures and she hasn't been seen at school since. He's still coming to school but keeps his head down."
The caution followed a threemonth inquiry during which the A-level student was interviewed by officers
Paignton Community College principal Jane English said: "The college undertook its own inquiry under its grievance and disciplinary procedures.
"The outcome of this investigation resulted in Mrs Gorman being dismissed from the college."
It is understood that she and her husband are still together and that he still works at the school.
A Devon and Cornwall police spokesman said: "The caution was for intentional sexual touching by a person in a position of trust.
"That will be the end of the matter as far as the police are concerned. There is no prospect of a criminal trial.
"The specific offence is the abuse of trust. It is not like having sex with a minor because the other party was 16 and over the age of consent."
The caution meant she had to sign the Sex Offenders Register and was added to the Department of Education blacklist, known as List 99.
Mrs Gorman is an award-winning former pupil at the college, having won its Linden Challenge Cup as their best A-level student 11 years ago.
The college has won national acclaim for its sexual health advice to teenagers, which includes handing out contraceptives to students.



maybe she was just working out a scene from hamlet. or taking a dna sample. cmon, when you were 16 you would have hit that too......

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