Teacher facing jail after having sex with pupil and forcing her to send explicit photos

A teacher is facing jail after he had sex with a female pupil by sneaking into her home whilst her mother was out.

Cardiff Crown Court has heard that high school teacher Ieuan Bartlett, 29, secretly went through the side door of her house to avoid her mum's doorbell camera in August 2021.

Bartlett was said to be a trusted welfare officer at the high school. Despite his role, he is said to have had sex with the "vulnerable" girl and "pressured her" into sending him naked selfies when she 16.

The teacher pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust, including sexual intercourse with the girl.

His guilty pleas came after an earlier jury failed to reach a verdict. Bartlett was due to stand retrial however he changed his pleas to admit the sex crimes.

Prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said, in the previous trial, that Bartlett was the teacher the girl had "turned to for support" in his role as a welfare officer but he abused his position.

Mr Cobbe said: "Mr Bartlett took advantage of his role - he gained her trust and her confidence and for the first few months of getting to know her, he built an ever closer bond with her.

"It was that privacy, that isolation that allowed the defendant to build on the bond that he was creating, nurturing with her, ultimately causing her to think that he had fallen for her and that she was in a loving relationship with him," he said.

The girl told police that Bartlett would hug and kiss her and tell her he wanted a relationship and to move in with her when she left college.

She told officers he would "constantly say he loves me and loves everything about me" and that he wanted to book hotel rooms for them to have sex in.

The girl said she had unprotected sex with Bartlett at her home after the school term had ended for summer in August 2021.

Bartlett was arrested and interviewed twice by police but declined to answer any of the questions put to him.

He originally denied any sexual relationship with the pupil during the school term, but had accepted that on 15 August, after school term had ended, that he went round to her house and had sex with her.

The girl said she was "pressured" to send nudes and would "cry when sending pictures" of herself.

Defending Bartlett, Sophie Standard told the court that the earlier trial had "serious consequence" on his mental health and he was undergoing counselling.

Bartlett, of Whitchurch, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust. He previously admitted to possessing an indecent image of the girl.

Judge Lucy Crowther remanded Bartlett into custody. He will next appear at Cardiff Crown Court for sentencing on Friday 3 May.

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