TEACHER JAILED AFTER SEX WITH SCHOOLGIRL

They kissed in a staff room and he claimed to love her

A PERVERT teacher has been jailed after he had a 10-month sexual relationship with a schoolgirl he claimed to love.

Newly-qualified Lewis Hobbs would meet up with his victim to kiss in the PE staff room, in his car and at her home.

Hobbs had been engaged in sex with the youngster when her older sister turned up at her home, concerned she had not answered a call from her mother.

Hobbs, right, told the shocked sister that he loved the schoolgirl and that she ‘wouldn’t understand’.

He was later sacked when his crimes came to light.

The 28-year-old, of Heathfield Road, Uttoxeter, pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity when he previously appeared at Derby Crown Court.

At a sentencing hearing this week, he was jailed for three years.

The court heard Hobbs – working as a supply teacher at the time – met the schoolgirl when she saw him crying in his classroom having just dismissed an unruly class early.

That meeting soon led to the schoolgirl adding him as a friend on Snapchat, and from there a relationship developed.

John Farmer, prosecuting, said: “She became infatuated with the defendant. There was kissing when they met from time to time in the PE staff room.

“She said how fond she was of him and she encouraged him. He did nothing to discourage it. This went on for about 10 to 11 months.”

When he was arrested, Hobbs told police, ‘I love her to bits’, ‘we wanted to spend time together’, ‘you can’t help your feelings’, and ‘we have a long term plan’.

However, his victim now looks at the situation differently, the court was told.

A victim impact statement read out on her behalf said: “From the time that all this started to now, my feelings have totally changed. I now see that everything about it was wrong.

“He made me feel special and had my attention, and now that I am older I feel that everything about it was inappropriate.

“I was disgusted about it. I was a child and I was taken advantage of by an adult who should have known better.

“I would have done anything for him, to protect him. I just wish I had known then what I know now. I was naive.”

Joe Harvey, defending, said at the same time of the start of the offending, Hobbs was teaching subjects he had no interest in. A sporting injury had led to a limp for which Hobbs became the subject of mockery and he was just coming out of a long-term relationship.

Mr Harvey said: “He has been dealing with the fallout of his own stupidity and he was dismissed from his job.

“There was a lack of support that the school should have provided to newly qualified colleagues.”

In sentencing Hobbs, Judge Shaun Smith told him that while he was not a predator, he did nothing to discourage the youngster from pursuing a relationship with him.

He told Hobbs: “You could have ended it yourself at that stage but you chose not to end it. By now you were hell bent on a relationship with her.

“You expressed your immaturity when you said you loved her. There is nothing right about what you did.

“You were the adult and she was the child. You abused her and your position at the school.”

Hobbs was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, and was barred from working with children for life.