Young teacher jailed for sex with vulnerable student

A young choirmaster at an exclusive Surrey private school took a vulnerable student's virginity just months after she confided in him that she had been abused by another music teacher, a court has heard.

Edward Moore, 24, was working in his first job as assistant director of music at the school when he had consensual sex with a troubled 16-year-old student in his office.

After taking her virginity, the teacher said to her: "Oh my God, you have to forgive me, you will hate me one day."

Moore, from Ascot, Berkshire, had only been working at King Edward's School in Witley, Surrey, for a few months when he began to grow close to a female student after she confided in him about previous abuse she had suffered at the hands of an older teacher.

The young girl, then aged 16 years, came to him in November 2012 to reveal she had been touched inappropriately by another music teacher when she was aged just 13 years.

The teacher, Roger Sanders, was charged with multiple counts of indecent assault and handed a four-month suspended sentence in March 2014 for touching her legs, bottom and breasts.

Prosecuting, Gary Ponds told how the defendant had taken on a counselling role for the traumatised young girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

While Moore had not taught the girl in any lessons, he was in position of authority as her choirmaster.

After rumours began circulating in the school, the headmaster warned Moore not to spend any more time alone with the pupil or let her into his office.

However, despite these warnings, their friendship blossomed into a sexual relationship over the summer of 2013, with them spending Friday nights together, kissing in the school's chapel and secretly travelling to Westminster Abbey and the Isle of Wight together.

That October, Moore touched the schoolgirl sexually in his office one evening but stopped short of sex when she asked him to.

The following Friday, things went further.

Moore did not use a condom and was immediately afterwards mired in regret, saying: "Oh my God, you have to forgive me, you will hate me one day."

Moore was sentenced to five months in prison for the first count, relating to sexual touching, and nine months for the second, the occasion of sexual intercourse, to run concurrently.

He must serve a minimum of half of that sentence and was put on the Sexual Offenders' Register and will be barred from working with children.