December 2011

Wiltshire teacher had sex with pupil

A married housemaster at a Bath boarding school who had an ‘extensive sexual relationship’ with a 16-year-old pupil has been jailed for 16 months.

Married Mark Westcott, 48, began the affair with the girl when she was just 16 and had gone to see him for pastoral support.

He had given her his mobile phone number after one of his classes and their relationship soon developed from flirty texts into kissing and full consensual sex.

The affair began when the girl was aged 16 and taking her GCSEs in Year 11 and continued when she joined the sixth form.

She even babysat Westcott’s children and became a friend of his wife, Swindon Crown Court heard.

They first kissed on a school ski trip earlier this year and their relationship soon turned physical.

Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley said they first slept together at aTravelodge hotel, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in August this year and later also had sex in a room adjacent to the school sports hall.

During the summer holidays, while Westcott was on holiday with his family in France, the pair sent naked photographs of each other, the court was told. The affair was first reported to police after the NSPCC received an anonymous call and later a pupil told another teacher that the girl was seeing someone.

Westcott, from North Wraxall, earlier admitted three charges of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

Judge Douglas Field jailed Westcott for 16 months and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years. Westcott was suspended by the school when he was arrested and has since been sacked.