PE teacher found guilty of having sex with teenage pupil

A ‘flirty’ PE teacher who took a teenage pupil home and had sex with him is facing jail.

Bronwen James, 30, swapped Snapchat messages with the besotted schoolboy, ‘slipped’ him vapes in his coursework and insisted he call her ‘Miss’ even when they were alone.

The boy told jurors at Winchester Crown Court: ‘I always called her “Miss”, I don’t know why, I think it was her little fantasy or something.’

James, who claimed she was a people pleaser and ‘wanted to be liked’, was found guilty of three charges of sexual activity with the boy.

Prosecutor Edward Culver told jurors at the start of the trial Bronwen had ‘exploited her position to engage in sexual activity’ with the boy at Bitterne Park School in Southampton.

‘She flirted with him, exchanged messages with him, took him to her home and she had sex with him,’ he added.

The boy told police James would let pupils use their phones in lessons and said they exchanged ‘flirtatious’ messages after she accepted his request to add her on Snapchat.

Mr Culver said it led to James driving the boy to Weston Shore, Southampton, where they parked and kissed in her car.

Afterwards, the teacher took the teenager to her house where they had sex, something which happened on three or four occasions.

Mr Culver said: ‘They messaged daily and Ms James told (the boy) she cared about him, they even discussed moving in together.

‘Ms James told him she loved him and wanted to move away with her.’

He said that the school was made aware of the incidents after another student showed a teacher some text messages apparently sent between the teacher and the teen.

Mr Culver said: ‘They suggested a sexually charged relationship, he was named as “number 8” in the messages as a cover, him being the eighth man she had slept with.

‘Her photo was visible on the phone screen.’

In a video interview with police, the student said that the day after they met in her car and kissed, she engaged in ‘flirty banter’ with him by saying: ‘Where were you last night?’

The boy said that they progressed to having sex at her house and added: ‘At the time I was overwhelmed, it was great but looking back at it, it was wrong.’

He also told police that he had been ‘groomed by his PE teacher’.

The boy said: ‘I thought this was great, any teenage boy’s dream but I think it was wrong, at the time I wasn’t thinking that.’

Giving evidence in her own defense, James said she began teaching aged just 21 and described herself as ‘immature’ and conceded she did not think she was a good teacher.

She said: ‘I just don’t think I was ready for it. As my career progressed, I realised maybe I was seeking validation from the wrong people.

‘I think I was a very lenient teacher, I was not strict, there were behavior policies I would not necessarily follow, such as using mobile phones in lessons.

‘But I did not want to upset them, I did not want to anger them. I wanted them to like me.’

James suggested the boy may have got access to her Snapchat account when she left her phone on her desk.

Her barrister Heather Stangoe asked her why she had communicated with a student when she knew this was against the rules as a teacher.

James said: ‘I think I wanted to be liked. I did not want to let people down. I was easily influenced.

‘I found it hard to say “no” to people I wanted to please.’

She admitted there was ‘banter’ with pupils in her class but said it was never of a sexual nature.

And she denied ‘flirting’ with the teenager or supplying him vapes and said an occasion when he allegedly slapped her bottom never happened.

But she admitted later lying to police that he had never visited her home in Fareham as she did not want the situation to ‘blow up’.

She told the jury she was out walking her dog, and the teenager messaged her asking for a lift home.

James said she agreed as it was on the way to her home and picked the youngster up in her car.

But she said she drove to her house first to drop the dog off and use the toilet, before taking him home and dropping him off.

She insisted no sex took place and he remained downstairs.

Mr Culver suggested the boy was in her car and was able to provide police with an accurate sketch plan of her home upstairs because they had sex there and were in a relationship.

He continued: ‘Is there any reason why he would tell these horrible, monstrous lies?’

James replied: ‘Maybe he wanted to look cool in front of his mates.’

Mr Culver continued: ‘I suggest there’s a lot of mysteries in this case. It’s wholly implausible he was able to provide that plan unless he had been in your bedroom a number of times.

‘It’s all explained by you having a relationship with him, having sexual activity with him. There’s no other plausible explanation.’

James replied: ‘It did not happen.’

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