January 2019

Teacher kissed and hugged pupil and took her on long days out

A teacher at a Derby school who formed an inappropriate relationship with a teenage pupil has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Derby Crown Court heard how Christopher Davis kissed the girl when they were alone after school, sent her messages and took her on drives into the countryside.

The relationship started while Davis, 32, was employed as an English teacher at Lees Brook Community School, in Chaddesden.

In one of the messages he told her “I think about you” before the pair started going on walking days out to the Derbyshire Dales.

The hearing was told how the school became aware that a relationship had begun between them and Davis was suspended from his role.

However, no sexual relationship between the teacher and the girl had started and the judge accepted this was “not a case of grooming”.

Handing Davis a 12-month community order, Judge Shaun Smith said: “What you did was morally wrong and criminally wrong and because it was criminally wrong the matter has ended up here at the crown court.

“You have to be sentenced for what you did to that young girl.

“However the situation developed (between Davis and the girl), you had a responsibility as a teacher to that young girl.

“There were many situations where you could have discouraged whatever was happening but you did not do that.

“I do not assess this case as grooming but you made a decision to hug and kiss this girl.

“During the Christmas period you took advantage of your relationship with her and you went out on two occasions for days out during which you kissed her.

“You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said that, in 2017, Davis was working as an English teacher at Lees Brook Community School.

He said he got to know the girl and within a short space of time their relationship “became inappropriate”.

Mr Kemp said: “There were emails between them and contact on social media outside the school period.

“The defendant sent her a message in which he said ‘I think about you’.

“There were extra teachings after school and, on occasion, they would be alone and he would hug her and kiss her head.”

Mr Kemp said that, in December 2017, Davis, of Francis Drive, Loughborough, and the girl met at a car park near her home and went out in his car.

He said: “He had put a Christmas card and Christmas gift in her bag and then kissed her on the lips.

“They went out, in her words ‘all over the place’ in the Ashbourne and Matlock area. They went walking and they kissed throughout the day.”

Mr Kemp said days later the two of them went on another drive into the country.

Davis was arrested in January 2018 after the school alerted the police.

In his interview, he gave a prepared statement in which he said no sexual activity had taken place between them.

He later pleaded guilty to having an inappropriate relationship with a school girl.

Adrian Reynolds, for Davis, said references from members of the public spoke of a man who “dedicated his life to helping others”.

He said: “To say this behaviour is out of character is something of an understatement.

“If ever there was a case where the conviction is the real punishment then this is it.”

As well as the community order, Judge Smith also placed Davis on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

The school’s statement

A statement from Northworthy Trust, which oversees Lees Brook Community School sent immediately after Davis’ conviction on Wednesday, read: “Mr Christopher Davis was suspended from duty as a teacher of English at Lees Brook Community School on January 8, 2018.

“The school referred the matter immediately to the Local Authority Designated Officer and the police.

“A multi-agency-strategy meeting was convened by the local authority designated officer on February 2, 2018, which advised the school to conduct an internal investigation under its own internal disciplinary procedure.

“The school investigation culminated in a formal governor’s disciplinary hearing on April 10, 2018, at which the panel concluded that Mr Davis should be dismissed from his post at Lees Brook Community School on the grounds of gross professional misconduct with immediate effect.

“The matter has been referred to the Teacher Regulatory Body and the Disclosure and Barring Service.”