Teacher accused of sex with boy on plane may face retrial

♦ A teacher accused of having sex with a pupil in the lavatory of an aircraft as they returned from a school trip could face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

The panel of four men and six women was discharged after 10-and-ahalf hours’ deliberating in the trial of Eleanor Wilson at Bristol Crown Court.

Judge Peter Blair QC stopped the trial after the foreman informed him there was not a “realistic prospect”, even if they were given more time, of reaching majority verdicts on any of the four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust that Ms Wilson faced.

Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, asked for a window of seven days for the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether it wished to seek a retrial. The 29-year-old is accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager in August 2015.

Ms Wilson, of Dursley, Glos, was released on bail.