Teacher used classroom cupboard as 'secret place' to abuse teenager

A teacher at a Nottinghamshire school who engaged in sexual activity with a teenage girl he taught has been jailed. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Craig Hill and the victim formed a relationship and during it he took her into a cupboard at the back of a classroom where they touched each other sexually.

A judge told the 46-year-old father what he did was to “manipulate a gullible child” who had developed a “teenage crush” on him. And in an impact statement, the victim told the court how even years later she feels she has “lost her childhood” and that it “still impacts every part of her life”.

Jailing him for two years and eight months, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “You were in a position of responsibility to that girl. She had come to you for help.

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“It was probably obvious to you early on she had some teenage crush and if you thought that all you had to do was kindly and firmly show her the door. That you did not, speaks volumes because it is perfectly clear you did not discourage her and to the contrary you exploited that.

“You groomed her. The cupboard at the back of the classroom became your secret place with her.

“She, even now and to a lay person like me, is labouring with all of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. You manipulated a gullible child.

“Every child of that age whose care is placed into the hands of teachers and others is entitled to expect, as is their families, it will be held sacrosanct that children will not be abused in the way this child was.”

Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting, said the offences took place when the defendant taught at Hall Park Academy, in Eastwood. She said the girl, now a woman, came forward to the police a number of years after the offences happened.

The prosecutor said: “He was a maths teacher and she was a pupil and these matters came to light when she went to see her mental health practitioner and said she had been in a relationship with her teacher years earlier saying they had done everything except full sexual intercourse....

“It started with him touching her back and then touching her leg and moving it higher up. She recalled one time when they went into a cupboard at the back of the classroom and he unbuttoned his shirt and she was shocked at how hairy his chest was.”

Miss Pritchard said that sexual activity between the victim and the defendant then began. She said: “For a few years (after) there was no contact until they then began messaging each other as she ‘wanted to get closure’. She tried talking to him, they met up, but it was nothing more than that.”

The prosecutor read out an impact statement made by the victim, herself now a mother, which she made days after Hill admitted his crimes two months ago. In it she said: “I would like the court to understand the impact the abuse had on me.

“Now he has accepted what happened, I thought I would feel better, but I am really struggling. This has impacted on every part of my life, I feel like I have lost so much precious time and my childhood.

“Every school memory is tainted, I was a child and I was groomed by this man. It is time for me to forgive, not him as I don’t care about him, but forgive myself. I still feel what happened to me has ruined my life."

Hill, of Mornington Crescent, Nuthall, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust as a teacher at Hall Park Academy.

Mark Knowles, defending, said references provided to the court “show a different side to him”.

He said: “It has been a difficult situation for his wife and difficult for his daughter. She found it very difficult to cope, he has not seen his daughter since March. He has now found work as a warehouseman but because of his conviction it is hard to move forward. It has been a fall from grace and he can only apologise.”

As well as the prison term, the judge handed the defendant a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will also be on he sex offender register for 10 years. The victim receives lifelong anonymity.