April 2003

Teacher jailed for talking sex to boy, 15

A TEACHER at Sherrardswood School in Welwyn Garden City has been jailed for 15 months for making sexual suggestions to a teenager over the internet.

Michael Payne, 38, was head of music at the independent school when he contacted a 15-year-old boy over the internet and made indecent suggestions.

Payne, of Durham Road, Stevenage, was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court on Monday, April 14, after being found guilty of indecency with a child by inciting him to commit an act of gross indecency.

He was also found guilty of 20 charges of making indecent photographs of a child after pornography was found on his home computer.

The court heard how Payne had contacted the boy who had been logged onto his home computer on June 6 last year under the pseudonym “Herts Happyman”.

Ms Isabel Delamere for the prosecution told the court how the teenager had at first been suspicious and asked who Payne was.

Payne told the boy that his name was Steve, that he worked in computer shops and was between 16 and 22 years old. He then asked the boy for his details.

The boy told him to go away, but he then received a message that contained references to oral and anal sex.

Ms Delamere said: “The boy went mad at him and asked why he was doing that. His brother saw the message and told him to block the caller, which he did.

“But he then received an e-mail from ‘Steve’.”

The court heard that at first the boy thought someone at school was playing a joke on him, but Payne apologised and said he wanted to talk.

When they spoke on the phone Payne said it had all been a joke but when the boy bluffed and said that he had called police, Payne began crying and said he was going to kill himself.

Payne was arrested on June 11 and made no comment in police interviews.

His computer was forensically examined and police found files containing child pornography.

At his trial in February Payne had told the jury that all he had done was ask the boy if he was gay and said the images on his computer must have been made by someone else.

Ms Kate Davey, defending, said the court had received many outstanding references for Payne and said that he had accepted that he had a problem in his attitude towards teenage boys.

Judge Findlay Baker QC ordered that Payne be put under extended licence for a further 21 months after his release and said that he should be put on the sex offenders register for the next ten years.

He has been banned from working with children.