Teacher pictured in hotel bed she shared with pupil aged 17
THIS is the picture that got a young French teacher struck off for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old pupil after a school prom.
Isabelle Graham, 27, spent three hours in a Travelodge hotel room with the teenager, drinking alcohol and ‘repeatedly’ engaging in sexual activity, a tribunal heard.
The devout Christian denied the allegations, claiming her drink had been spiked and she had no memory of the night.
But a lawyer for the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) dismissed her claim as ‘speculation’ after police said she was seen on CCTV kissing the teenager – and a photo shared online appeared to show her in his hotel bed.
She was judged unfit to teach and barred from the profession by the GTCS disciplinary panel yesterday.
Carla Roth, the GTCS case presenter, said Miss Graham’s actions left pupils ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘somewhat shocked’. ‘You would have to question what sort of role model was provided in this instance,’ she said.
Turning to the teacher’s claim that her drink had been spiked, she said this was ‘essentially no more than a speculation’. The case presenter added that Miss Graham was ‘only willing to consider one version of events’ – that she had been drugged rather than that she may have simply drunk too much.
Miss Graham was engaged at the time of the incident in June 2014 and has since married Andrew Wilkie, 27, a trainee clergyman. Her father Paul is a pastor at Destiny Church in Edinburgh.
She and her husband have been involved with evangelical military charity The Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association ( Sasra), of which the Queen is patron.
Miss Graham, who now lives in Aldershot, Hampshire, was a teacher at Whitburn Academy in West Lothian at the time of the incident.
The GTCS was told that after the school’s prom at an upmarket hotel in Edinburgh, Miss Graham went with pupils to a nearby Travelodge where she had ‘inappropriate contact’ with one boy, who cannot be named.
An investigation was launched after other teachers were made aware of a picture which had been shared on social media.
The photograph, presented at the hearing, showed a blonde woman asleep in bed while a pupil, said to be the 17-year-old, stands at the door holding a bottle of champagne. It was taken by another teenager who was meant to be sharing the room with the boy at the centre of the case, who said he had returned to find the teacher there. Miss Graham, who now uses the name Shona Wilkie, did not attend the hearing in Edinburgh. In a statement, she said she was the ‘victim’ and that if the picture was of her, it had been posed and was of someone who was ‘not in control of the situation’.
She added that she was an ‘active and practising Christian’ who had been ‘waiting until marriage’ to have sex. Police Scotland raised charges against Miss Graham but prosecutors did not pursue them, citing a lack of evidence.
She said in an interview that she was unable to recall events after 10.30pm because she had drunk four glasses of wine, and her first memory was waking up in her flat at 5am the next day.
Detective Superintendent Keith Mailer, who investigated the case, said Miss Graham had gone to hospital fearing her drink had been spiked, but that tests found no evidence of this.
He added: ‘ Throughout the [CCTV] footage there’s no sign that [Miss Graham] is under the excessive influence of drugs or alcohol.
‘The way she moved and conducted herself suggested someone who was making conscious decisions.’
Miss Graham resigned from her post at the school. She could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Her husband, a keen hockey player, has stood by her and defended her char- acter in a statement which said he had ‘no doubt’ the allegations were false.
Dr Andrew A Hill, executive director at Sasra, said: ‘Mrs Wilkie joined our organisation in a part-time capacity at the end of last year. She isn’t currently working with us.’
A spokesman for West Lothian Council said the ex- teacher was ‘ no longer employed by the council and it would not be appropriate to comment further’.
‘Not in control of the situation’