Soldier-turned-teacher sexually assaulted teen girl | UK | News
A soldier who lost his leg became a teacher Afghanistan He was arrested and sent to prison for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl. Simon Taylor, 43, was working in education after part of his right leg was amputated when his car was hit by a roadside bomb in 2009.
The Army veteran was a teacher at Hethersett Academy. NorfolkHe hunted down a young student at school here. Judge Andrew Shaw sentences Taylor Norwich Crown Court He said on Tuesday: “You groomed him, you manipulated him, you sent him obscene images of your genitals.”
Prosecutor Isobel Ascherson said the offending went on for more than two years and continued after the girl left school. He said Taylor made the teenager “think that he was the only person who cared about him, who could help or help him.”
Norwich Crown Court heard Taylor would message the girl via the school’s messaging platform, which led to him being given a written warning, but the communication continued.
The prosecutor said Taylor, a married father who now lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was “grooming” the girl, adding that he “wanted to have sex with (the girl) and wanted to meet up outside school”.
He said Taylor threatened to harm himself if the girl did not send him pictures and wrote in a message to the court: “Looking forward to some fun, as long as we are both looking for fun we can have some fun until you find a nice lad hey”.
The prosecutor said Taylor had admitted five offenses at an earlier hearing, including sexual activity with a child by a person in trust. In one incident, he touched a girl’s buttocks under her skirt at school.
He also admitted two counts of sexual communication with a child and two counts of sexual assault.
Ms Ascherson said both sexual assault charges involved him touching the girl’s breasts, once in a car while she was still a student at school and on another occasion in a car after she had left school.
The court heard the girl reported Taylor to the police and also “told his wife what he had done to her”.
Reading a victim impact statement in court, the girl said: “My childhood was stolen from me. I never had the chance to be a normal teenager.”
Richard English KC, defending Taylor, said his client “accepts that he has caused real and substantial harm”. He said Taylor “has not been charged with anything related to his injury,” adding that he “did not receive any appropriate or therapeutic intervention following his discharge from the Army.”
Mr English said: “It is clear that his mental health may have contributed to what happened.”
Taylor was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register and will be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life, as well as a restraining order preventing him from contacting the girl or her family. Taylor will also be banned from working with children.
