Sex-shame class assistant jailed over pupil affair

Rachel Peters, 40, who has a daughter younger than her victim, was said to have committed a “gross breach of trust” by a judge at Doncaster Crown Court.

Kath Goddard, prosecuting, said Peters had been given a warning by the school the previous year over inappropriate conduct with an older pupil which “while not sexual showed her naivety”.

Peters had held her job at a school in the Doncaster area for 17 years and taught younger staff the responsibilities of teaching assistants, including a ban on contact with pupils outside school.

Her affair with the 13-year-old boy came to light following a school trip when he was heard speaking in a “sexualised” way and when questioned by a member of staff admitted having sex with “somebody called Rachel”.

The matter was reported and the school called in the police in September 2010.

When interviewed on video the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had heard Peters talking to other pupils about Facebook and the MSN messaging service and asked if he could be “friends” with her on Facebook.

She at first declined but they then began exchanging emails and would communicate by MSN frequently late at night. “It involved discussion of sexual matters,” said Miss Goddard.

One night Peters removed part of her dressing gown to expose her breasts to the boy over her computer webcam. A few days later she picked up the boy from school and “made it clear she wanted to have sexual intercourse with him”, said Miss Goddard.

She drove him to a rural area and performed a sex act on him in her family car. But the car was too small for full intercourse so Peters got out and took the boy to a nearby field where they had sex.

The boy told police it was he who ended the relationship. Miss Goddard told the court: “He was becoming worried by the relationship and by the defendant’s talk of the two of them running away together. He was only 13, nearly 14 at the time.”

When arrested Peters maintained she had not had sex with the boy and was trying to help him because he was being bullied which police found to be untrue.

She said there was no inappropriate contact but officers found phone records and “a large number of messages and conversations on her computer” with the boy and another boy aged 17.

Peters was due to stand trial on 10 charges of inciting the boy to engage in sexual activity and engaging in sexual activity in his presence in June this year.

But after a jury had been sworn in, Peters changed her plea to three of the offences and the jury was ordered to formally return guilty verdicts on three charges.

The jury was discharged from giving verdicts on the other seven offences and they will lie on file.

Peters, of Kennington Grove, Edlington, Doncaster, was convicted of one offence of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of the boy to gain sexual gratification by exposing her breasts.

She was also convicted of two offences of causing or inciting the boy to engage in sexual activity. All the offences took place in 2010.

Steven Crossley, defending, said Peters had spared the boy the ordeal of having to give evidence in court, albeit entering her guilty pleas on the day of the trial.

Mr Crossley said she had a history of abusive relationships and “sought a relationship with someone much younger who was a great deal less likely to inflict the levels of physical abuse she had suffered in the past”.

Judge Jacqueline Davies said Peters had conversations on a regular basis with the boy and she even told him incorrectly that her former partner was terminally ill.

Reports had shown she was a serious risk to young children, particularly young males, and her behaviour was manipulative. “These offences are extremely serious,” said the judge.

Peters was told to sign the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention order. It is also likely she will barred from working with children.