‘No verdict’ over teacher accused of sex on plane

THE trial of a physics teacher accused of having sex with a pupil of 16 in a plane toilet ended in a hung jury yesterday.

Jurors said there was no ‘ realistic prospect’ of reaching a majority verdict in the case of Eleanor Wilson, 29, (pictured) after deliberations over three days. The Crown Prosecution Service has been given seven days to decide whether there will be a retrial.

The former teacher wiped away tears as Judge Peter Blair QC discharged the jury at Bristol Crown Court.

Wilson is accused of striking up a ‘clandestine relationship’ with the teenager on a school trip to Swaziland, in southern Africa, in July and August 2015.

She allegedly fondled the pupil before luring him into a lavatory on the British Airways flight back from Johannesburg.

The pair are said to have had unprotected sex which led to her becoming pregnant and having an abortion behind her then-boyfriend’s back.

Now a Ministry of Defence civil servant and a Royal Navy Reservist, Wilson is also accused of kissing and cuddling the boy on three separate occasions.

Wilson, of Dursley, Gloucestershire, denied four charges of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust. She was released on unconditional bail.