Teacher denies grooming teens who had sex in his car

William Drury, 48, was driving the teenagers, a girl aged 16 and a boy aged 17, home from his house on Chester Road, Halifax, when the pair had sex.

Drury is accused of encouraging school children to take part in sexual activity, inappropriately touching a teenage girl and making indecent photographs of teenage girls.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court heard that the married teacher did nothing to stop the teenagers from having sex in his car.

The court was also told that, on another occasion, he was aware the pair intended to have sex on school property and knew they were taking part in a sex act at the school.

Drury told the court he came to look upon the boy as a friend and would discuss personal matters and matters of a sexual nature with the teenager.

When asked why he discussed such matters with the boy, he said he did not want to seem “weak and impotent in front of him”.

“I was naive and stupid and did not want to appear less than him,” he said.

“I created stories about my sex life so that I would not appear weak. The stories I told them about my sex life were actually all lies.”

Rob Mairs, prosecuting, told the court that Drury continued to meet the couple and discuss sexual matters after his suspension from the school.

He said: “What you did with these pupils was make it normal to discuss sex with them, to talk about their sex lives and talk about your sex life.”

The barrister continued: “What you were doing, Mr Drury, was grooming them.”

“No,” the defendant replied.

Mr Mairs also told the court that an erotic short story about a teacher’s physical relationship with a pupil was found on the defendant’s computer after his arrest.

He asked Drury if he thought about schoolgirls in a sexual way.

The teacher denied that he did and said: “This is a fantasy and nothing more.”

Drury admitted that he found one schoolgirl “attractive”.

He said he sent the girl a Valentine’s card on Facebook as a “fun thing to do”.

When asked by the barrister why he told the girl he “wanted to be her boyfriend” and was “jealous of the things her boyfriend could do”, he answered: “I was being a very foolish person. I found (the girl) an attractive young lady.”