Teacher is cleared over student sex accusations
ATEACHER has been found not guilty of abusing her position by having sex with a pupil.
Deborah Lowe, 54, of Elmsbed Caravan Park in Poynton, sobbed in the dock as the verdict was read out.
The divorced mother-oftwo had denied five counts of engaging in sexual activity with a student when being a person in a position of trust between September 2015 and June 2016.
But a jury took just two hours and seven minutes to acquit Mrs Lowe, who was head of year, following a week-long trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
She was also found not guilty of sexual activity with a child.
Lowe, a former air stewardess, admitted she had sex with the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but said he had left school and was 17 when it started. She told the trial she was having ‘some sort of midlife crisis’ while her barrister said she was guilty only of being a ‘bloody fool’.
Mrs Lowe, who had no previous convictions, had come into contact with the boy as part of her nonteaching role in pastoral care at the school when he got into trouble.
The teenager, now 18, alleged they swapped numbers while he was a pupil at the school and that he went on to have phone sex that night and again a few nights later before having a full sexual relationship. Giving evidence during the trial, she said she ‘just wanted to help him’ and had ‘gone above and beyond’ to do so.
Speaking about her first sexual encounter with the teenager, Mrs Lowe told the trial: “He said he missed me. He had been thinking about me a lot and then we kissed. And I am very embarrassed to say that we ended up in bed together, which I regret.”
She added: “I’m mortified. I’m embarrassed. I think I was having some sort of midlife crisis. I have never done anything like that before. I don’t know why I did it. I am so ashamed.”
The trial heard that, after a friend suggested in a WhatsApp message she was ‘sh****g’ the teenager, Mrs Lowe replied: “Can I just say for the minute I am not s****ing him and I am merely a mother figure. However if not in the too distant future he wants to discuss the merits of an older woman I will be there for him.”
Her friend replied: “Yummy. Can’t say I blame you.”
Mrs Lowe then replied with emojis of a bottle of baby lotion and a pair of handcuffs.
She told the court she was ‘flattered by the attention’ and described this as a ‘silly’ and lighthearted conversation as she had not had a partner for nine years.
During the trial, the judge directed the jury to find the defendant not guilty of sexual activity with a child after the teen admitted under cross examination that he must have been 16, not 15 as originally claimed, when their relationship began.
Her accuser was branded a lying drug dealer in court. He had one caution for possessing cocaine and was sacked for stealing in a job Mrs Lowe arranged for him.
He admitted he had spoken to a journalist from The Sun but denied a suggestion that he was experiencing money troubles and changed his story to make it more marketable. The jurors heard that he contacted the tattooist Mrs Lowe was paying and suggested he charge her £600 rather than £400 as he was ‘skint’. During his closing speech, Neil Usher, said that ‘happily’ for his client there wasn’t another charge ‘of being a bloody fool when going through a mid-life crisis when a 17-year-old young man contacted you in his words because he felt horny.’
Had she faced such a charge, he said their task would be ‘straight-forward’ and they would find ‘no difficulty’ in convicting her of being ‘silly, inappropriate and stupid’.
A statement released on behalf of Ms Lowe after the hearing said: “The last nine months have been extremely upsetting for me and my family. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their loving care. I’m grateful for the support of former colleagues, friends and past pupils who sent messages of support. Although incredibly stressful and upsetting at times, I’m extremely pleased that I have had the opportunity to clear my name and I’m delighted that the jury acquitted me of all counts.
“I’m very grateful for my legal team who from the start identified the flaws in the case against me and robustly challenged the prosecution case.
“I wish to put the case behind me as best I can and spend some time with my family and friends.”