Teacher Banned After Sending Saucy Selfies To Teen Boy

Teacher Banned After Sending Saucy Selfies To Teen Boy
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A teacher has been banned from the classroom after she seduced a 16-year-old boy with saucy Facebook selfies.

Claire Louise Horton, 31, sent the teenage boy messages on the social networking site while he was on study leave for his GCSE exams.

She included sexy 'selfie' pictures of herself pouting in a lacy crop top and a little black dress with a plunging neckline.

But she denied having sex with the ex-pupil despite admitting she had 'slept alongside him' at her home.

The mum resigned from her position as head of year at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff but denied the charge of having a 'sexual' or 'inappropriate' relationship with a pupil.

She told a panel from the General Teaching Council for Wales: "He slept at my house and so did I. I slept alongside him. We did not have sexual intercourse."

Challenging her evidence, presenting officer Martin Jones, said: "That is not a phrase that anyone would use unless they were referring to sexual intercourse."

The panel heard that Mrs Horton had been going through 'an acrimonious divorce' in June 2012 at the time she started exchanging Facebook messages with the pupil, who had started revision leave on May 31.

She said she'd arranged a rendez-vous with the teenager outside a building in Cardiff in the late afternoon and then drove him back to her house in Newport, where they spent around two and a half hours together.

She then claimed that she and the teenager both fell asleep for about an hour around 6pm, before she realised she had 'overstepped a professional boundary' and drove him home, before collecting her children later that evening.

Mr Jones suggested it was unlikely that the pair would have fallen asleep in the late afternoon.

But Mrs Horton said: "I had been crying a lot. My body was physically and mentally drained.

"Within days of the event, I felt I had committed the ultimate sin and made the decision to go to the head and tell her what I had done.

"I have no excuses to give you. I was in such a bad place mentally. The feeling of shame and regret is something I will never be able to get rid of."

Social services contacted the pupil, who alleged the pair had engaged in sexual intercourse, but stated he did not want to make a formal complaint. Police investigated the incident, but no charges were brought.

Delivering the findings of the panel, chairwoman Helene Mansfield said: "We are satisfied that the facts have been proved."

She acknowledged that the teenager had been a 'former' pupil at the time of the incident, 'albeit by a few days'.

She added: "As his head of year, she should have had pastoral responsibilities for his wellbeing and progress."