England: judge says schoolgirl ‘groomed’ teacher in sex case

Stuart Kerner, 44, of Kent, was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

The Attorney General’s Office tweeted that it had gotten complaints that the sentence was unduly lenient.

Mr Kerner had sex with the girl, then aged 16, at Bexleyheath Academy.

A decision is due by 11 February as to whether the case will be referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentences scheme.

Inner London Crown Court was told how Mr Kerner had sex with the girl, taking her virginity on the floor of a school storeroom. He later took her to his house where they had sex again.

Jurors at the trial were told that what began as a crush the girl had on Mr Kerner became an 18-month affair, discovered in 2013.

Mr Kerner, while found guilty by a jury in December last year of the two counts specified, was cleared of four counts of the same offence – sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust as well as two counts of sexual activity with a child relating to an alleged behaviour when the child was 15.

Judge Joanna Greenberg QC, sentencing, said the girl had become “obsessed” with the teacher.

She said to Mr Kerner: “Her friends described her, accurately in my view, as stalking you.

“If grooming is the right word to use, it was she who groomed you, (and) you gave in to temptation.”

Judge Greenberg added the teacher was “emotionally fragile” as his wife had miscarried the same week he had sex with the pupil.

The judge cited this a reason why someone of “exemplary” character would commit the offences.

Mr Kerner was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and was barred from working with children for life.

However, this has been deemed unduly lenient by some. Marilyn Hawes, founder of the charity Enough Abuse UK, which supports abuse victims, said: “She was still a pupil and she had a right, as did the parents or her carer, to expect she would be secure and safe in those hours in school with someone who had been given that trust, and it was a total breach of trust.

“I just do not understand where the judge was coming from when she says she stalked him. He abused his position.”

Jon Brown of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said: “This was an abusive relationship and young people involved in situations like this can be damaged in many ways.

“Teachers have a duty of care to their pupils and Kerner should have taken steps to distance himself from the girl rather than encouraging her behaviour.”