Music teacher jailed for two years after he slept with two pupils

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A MUSIC teacher from who had sex with two pupils at the school where he worked has been jailed for two years.

Richard Knight, from Tewkesbury, groomed the teenage schoolgirls aged between 13 and 17 - before having affairs with them behind his wife’s back.

The 53-year-old had sexual relationships with both girls until they turned 18 after he targeted them while working at Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire.

Knight was arrested in February after his suspicious partner contacted police and he came clean about the affairs.

He previously pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual activity with children aged between 13 and

17 at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court.

On Friday, November 23, Knight was jailed for two years at Worcester Crown Court.

A sexual prevention order was also put in place for 10 years, preventing him from having unsupervised contact with girls under the age of 16.

Sentencing, Judge Jeremy Baker QC, told Knight the two victims had “particularly vulnerable” emotional backgrounds.

He said: “You knew that and that was why they were specifically targeted over and above other children at school.

“Your behaviour was predatory and there was a significant degree of planning.”

Knight, also previously the conductor of Malvern Festival Chorus, taught both pupils at the school and began the second affair after the first one ended.

The court heard Knight’s wife had also been a pupil at a school while he was working there, and they married in 2002, before separating years later when she discovered the first affair.

In a statement read out in court, one of the victims said Knight had given her confidence but she could see now “he had taken advantage of the situation”.

The other victim described how the relationship started with emails and texts, then kissing before more “intimate moments” took place.

Sam Lansdale, defending, asked the judge to give Knight a suspended sentence and said “his career is clearly at an end”.

Knight left his £55,000-a-year job at Bromsgrove School last year.