Teacher jailed after sending indecent pictures to schoolgirl
ADISGRACED school teacher who sent a nude photo of himself with only a smiley face emoji covering his genitals has been jailed.
Christopher Wood, 33, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars after being convicted of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity whilst in a position of trust and causing a child to watch a sexual activity by a person in a position of trust.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court cleared him of a further charge of causing a child to watch a sexual activity by a person in a position of trust.
Wood, from Tregaron in Ceredigion, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Sentencing Wood, Judge Mark Wall told him: “You have lost your good character, lost your job, your wife and the respect of people who knew you.
“You had a sexual interest in schoolgirls dating back to at least 2009 as you searched the internet for ‘sex with teacher.’ You groomed a vulnerable schoolgirl. Only a prison sentence can warrant what you have done.”
The trial heard how all the charges related to his time as a teacher at a school in Solihull, West Midlands, which cannot be named for legal reasons.
Wood sent a female pupil a photograph of himself naked with his genitals covered by a smiley face emoji, the court heard.
He was also accused of showing pupils pornographic pictures of himself with other women, including him being intimate with his wife.
Wood had been working at the school since September 2015. He had also made internet searches for phrases including “sex with teacher” and “student, teacher and sex” before he joined the school.
The court had heard Wood became close to a female pupil and began to communicate together on Snapchat with the teacher using the tag “I don’t give a f...”
In December 2015 he sent the girls several pictures of him seminaked and then fully exposed apart from an emoji sticker covering his genitals. In return she sent him a picture of herself topless.
Police later discovered images of schoolgirls posing with garters and ribbons on their thighs after checking his computer.
His defence team said Wood was suicidal when the matters came to light and was seeing mental health professionals. His wife had since left him and his career as a teacher was over.