David Howard, then aged 24, was an English teacher at Crown Woods Secondary School in 2002 when he struck up a “warped” relationship with a girl at the school.
Over the course of several months they met up outside school, exchanged letters and once engaged in a sexual act in a classroom cupboard after school.
Almost two decades later she disclosed the abusive relationship to the police and Howard, now aged 47, was charged with abuse of trust by engaging in sexual activity.
At his sentencing hearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday (January 3) Matthew Dalton told the court the relationship began when the schoolgirl received a Valentine’s Day card to her home address.
The card said “I have become infatuated with you. I am besotted with you”.
The girl worked out he had sent it and when she confronted him about it the abusive relationship blossomed, the court heard.
She said she viewed Mr Howard as the “good looking” and “cool teacher”, so when he flirted with her it made her feel powerful.
Reading a statement in front of her abuser in court, she said: “Predators like him are able to identify children like me who are vulnerable, and they target us.”
She continued: “The grooming was so powerful that it that it locked me into believing for a decade that I had been in a consenting relationship.”
She described the relationship as an “open secret” at the school and said she even showed another teacher letters sent by Mr Howard.
“I hope the other teachers feel a tenth of the shame I feel for not speaking out at the time,” she said.
She said she believes Howard abused other pupils when he was teaching at the school.
Crown Woods School has since changed names, first to Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy and later to Leigh Stationers’ Academy (Image: Streetview) The impact of the abuse has continued to plague her adult life, she said.
She added: “I have been unable to receive love because I believed I was dirty and toxic, with something broken inside of me.”
Defending, James Martin said his client was immature at the time of the offending but is now 48 and married.
“Your honour is passing sentence on a man who is a completely different human being to who he was then,” Mr Martin told Judge Charlotte Welsh.
Mr Howard pleaded guilty to the offence at the first opportunity but denied there was any element of grooming involved in his behaviour.
The court heard that it was his first teaching job and he felt isolated and unsupported.
The judge said: “It seems to me that you chose to use that girl to make yourself feel better. It was an extraordinarily selfish thing to do.
“If you were not equipped at 24 to deal with the stresses of life, she was not equipped to deal with your sexual advances.”
Judge Welsh said she was not convinced Mr Howard’s behaviour constituted grooming but described it as “twisted, immoral and ultimately illegal”.
“This was not a one-off mistake by you. This was a sole sexual act committed in the context of a relationship started by you,” she said.
David Howard (Image: Newsquest) She sentenced Mr Howard to six months’ custody suspended for a year and a half, meaning he left court a free man.
“I have concluded that there is a significant and realistic prospect of rehabilitation in your case,” Judge Welsh explained.
Mr Howard, from Lewes, changed careers after the abuse took place, the court heard.
Crown Woods School has changed names multiple times since 2002, first to Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy and later to Leigh Stationers’ Academy.