Cleared sex case teacher ‘touched girl pupils at his new school’
A TEACHER previously arrested for sexually abusing a pupil went on to commit a string of offences against young girls he taught, it was alleged yesterday.
Jonathan Clayton’s new employers had no idea of previous claims against him when they hired him as a supply teacher at their primary school.
The headteacher was “shocked and horrified” when she was told of them at an emergency meeting called after six girls made allegations against the 27-year-old.
Police were told that at his first school Clayton “fixated” on certain girls, engineering excuses to touch, cuddle and even bounce them on his knee.
One eight-year-old told how he put his hand up her skirt on a regular basis – but her evidence was not deemed strong enough and the case was dropped in 2018.
As a supply teacher, checks on Clayton were the responsibility of agency Visions for Education.
But Teesside Crown Court heard that details leading to his arrest two years earlier were not received by the second school.
The CPS dropped the first case, ordering he be found not guilty at Durham Crown Court. But his future employers should have been informed, jurors were told.
Neither school in the north of England can be named, to protect the identity of the alleged victims.
Clayton, from Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees, denies 13 charges of sexually assaulting six girls aged seven to 11 in April and May last year. He claims he was a victim of “Chinese whispers” among pupils and staff.
But the charges are similar to alleged offences in 2016 and 2017, and Judge Howard Crowson allowed these to be heard as “evidence only capable of supporting the prosecution case”.
The court heard Clayton was considered “charismatic” by his new colleagues and popular with pupils until they began making claims against him. They said he would touch them while helping them dress after PE and as they stood at his desk, leaving one alleged victim “feeling disgusting”.
Prosecutor Richard Bennett asked the head: “When you have an agency employing teachers what do you know about the teacher?” She replied: “Very little. Vetting is the responsibility of the agency.”
The trial continues.