Teacher convicted of rape after text confession to victim

A SCHOOL teacher has been convicted of rape after texting his victim a “confession” claiming that he took advantage because of “sexual frustration”.

Michael Leydon, 61, a history teacher, raped the victim in 2014 while still working in a school part-time.

The married father-of-three denied rape but was found out when police discovered a series of text messages he sent to the victim which amounted to “a confession”.

One read: “You said last night that I should have stopped on the night I took advantage of you against your will – believe me I wish I had.

“If I had known what I was doing I would have.

“I cannot change what happened or how you must have felt but I will do anything to try to make amends.”

A later message said: “I did something disgusting as a result of drink, tablets and stress.” Another said: “What I did to you was my fault, albeit I did it on a cocktail of alcohol, sexual frustration and depression.”

A trial jury at Worcester Crown Court took 11 hours and eight minutes to find Leydon guilty of rape by a majority verdict of 11-1.

James Dunstan, prosecuting, had told jurors: “In a sense the text messages are a black and white record of what was said and how it was said. They contain a confession.”

As the verdict was read out on Wednesday, Leydon’s wife, who was watching from the public gallery, screamed and left court

He was cleared of a second charge of rape dating back to the Eighties.

‘I did something disgusting as a result of drink, tablets and stress … what I did to you was my fault’

The trial had heard Leydon was a teacher at a school in Worcester between 1983 and 1989 but he had also taught at schools in Redditch and Hereford and was a school governor.

Leydon claimed the sex was consensual and his barrister, Robert Tolhurst, suggested to the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that she was “confused” due to flashbacks to when she was sexually abused as a child.

Leydon, of Diglis, Worcester, was bailed but was warned that he faced prison when he returns to court next month for sentencing.

Judge James Burbidge QC told him: “A sentence of imprisonment is inevitable for rape.”