College tutor handed suspended sentence after pleading guilty to making indecent images of a child
Our reporter Richard Morgan was in court for the sentencing.
Ian Powell, who’s 60 and worked as a tutor at Coleg Gwent, admitted the offences involving a teenage girl.
Newport Crown Court heard that the girl, who can’t be named for legal reasons, looked up to Powell and saw him as a father figure.
But as time went on, the judge told him, “something was developing between the two of you.”
The court was told that there had been some hugging and kissing - described as ‘snogging’ - between the two in a local park. Powell went on to buy the teenager sex toys.
The messaging between the pair later became sexual, with the girl sending a number of indecent images to the defendant.
7 of these - including 2 videos - were in Category A, the most serious category. 8 images were in Category B and 32 in Category C, the least serious.
Powell was arrested after the relationship between the pair came to the attention of Coleg Gwent, where he worked.
Police recovered devices from his home where the images were found.
In a victim impact statement, the teenager said that her feelings about the relationship had changed over time. Initially, she said she felt “she’d messed up in some way.”
“I felt bad, like I was getting someone into trouble. People kept saying that it wasn’t my fault, but I kept thinking that.”
But over time, she began to view the situation differently.
“It took several months for my feelings to change.”
“I began to see that there was an imbalance in this relationship.”
Sentencing, Judge Shomon Khan said he accepted that the defendant had shown “genuine remorse”, but that “nothing could explain” what Powell had done.
“You were grooming [the victim]. There’s no other conclusion that I can draw.”
“Your career is destroyed. You deserve that for putting your own sexual needs before the victim’s welfare.”
Ian Powell was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for 2 years.
He was also ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation, 150 hours of unpaid work, and will be subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting the victim for 7 years.
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