By Grâçia Ada Obi
A United Kingdom (UK) teacher who booked a hotel room to have sex with a pupil has been jailed for more than three years.
Bradley Amphlett had earlier led the girl into a school art cupboard where he kissed her, a court heard.
The 26-year-old soon started sending the girl ‘explicit’ messages and even asked her to call him ‘daddy.’ He would also ‘fantasise’ about their encounter within the art cupboard, prosecutor Jonathan Dee said.
The court heard Amphlett kissed her a number of times during the course of the pupil’s final week at school. The pair exchanged a number of messages once she had left the school – escalating to the night in a hotel in Nottingham City Centre.
Mr Dee told the hearing how the defendant worked as an art and design teacher at a secondary school in Derbyshire and that he and the victim started ‘flirting’ when she was in her final years at the school.
He said: ‘In her last week of school the offending started. He had given her his number in case she needed emotional support.
‘She said she had gone into his room to speak to him because she was stressed about exams. He got everyone out of the room and then went over to her.
‘He hugged her and then turned her face up to his and kissed her. It is quite clear from what she said that he was shocked about this and knew he had crossed a line.
‘The next day she had an exam but it was also the day that students were getting everyone to autograph a shirt. She asked him and he was initially distant but later, after the exam, she went back into his room and he kissed her again.
“Clearly by now any doubts he had were gone and in fact he told her to ask him to kiss her. She did and he took her into the art cupboard where no one could see them and kissed her again.
‘She described this as more intense than the first kiss. By the Friday, she had left the school. However when she left, she messaged him and left her number. They then started communicating by text.’
Mr Dee said Amphlett ‘had clearly received a warning of some sort as safeguarding concerns had been raised about his relationship with her’. But the Barrister said the messages between them became more explicit.
‘He was clearly encouraging her in this although she was responding in kind,’ Mr Dee added.
‘He encouraged her to call him ‘daddy’ and engage in explicit ‘sexting’ and there are a whole series of very explicit messages where they are fantasising about sexual activity and what could have happened in the art cupboard.’ The matter came to light when the girl told a friend, and it was reported to Police and the school.
Amphlett was arrested and interviewed, but gave a prepared statement denying the offence and then made no comment.
He pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual communication with a child and meeting a child following sexual grooming.
He was jailed for three years and eight months.
Sian Hampton, chief executive of Archway Learning Trust, said: “On behalf of Archway Learning Trust and everybody at Alvaston Moor Academy, we are pleased to hear that justice has been served today.
“Given the very serious nature of the crime, we appreciate that this will cause shockwaves in our community, and all our colleagues are on hand for any students who may need some support.”