Former teacher sets up charity to help offenders move on

Eppie Sprung was struck off the teaching register in 2012 after it came to light she had had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy at St Joseph’s College in Dumfries.

Ms Sprung pleaded guilty to breach of trust and was placed on the sex offenders register until the end of her six-month community payback order.

She lost her teaching career and her marriage collapsed following the conviction, which she believes has continued to affect her life.

She now wants to help others in rebuilding their lives through her charity Next Chapter, which is funded with lottery money. She is seeking changes in equality laws, which she says let employers discriminate against people with spent convictions.

“I am well educated, I have a secure background, I have all of these things that I can put to good use to help make the system a bit better for people,” she said.

“We want to help people have accessible information and bring people together to foster hope and we want to help people to defend their rights, when their rights are being violated.

“Once they have served their sentence they should be allowed to contribute as a member of society.”

Ms Sprung, now 37, remarried and has two children. She said the time after her conviction was “absolutely horrific”.

“Teaching was my identity, I loved it,” she said. “The punishment is never really over.

“For many years, the tabloid press sensationalised my offence and that meant that everybody knew who I was, UK-wide, and I don’t exactly have an obscure name.”

She obtained a grant of £7,530 from The National Lottery.

Of her children, she said: “I’m very aware that they are going to have to face the stigma of my offence and I made a very conscious decision that if they were going to have to deal with that, it would be better for them to have a mum who is using that experience for good.”

“It’s fair to say that my family kept me alive,” she said. “All people have value and if they can hold on to that knowledge, they can hold on to their life.”