Alice McBrearty has been jailed for 16 months after admitting a four-moth fling earlier this year with a pupil she taught at an east London school where she taught
A ‘gifted’ young teacher had sex with a 15-year-old pupil when she brought him back to her council council chief executive mother’s £750,000 home.
Alice McBrearty, 23, admitted having a four-month fling earlier this year with a pupil she taught at an east London school.
The teacher — whose mother Lesley Seary, 59, is the £160,000-a-year chief executive at London’s Islington Council — took the boy to an Ibis hotel for sex, and performed sex acts on him in an empty garage and in her car as a ‘birthday treat’.
She also took the teenager to her parents’ £750,000 home in Wanstead Park, east London, where she performed sex acts on him and had sex.
The well kept four-bedroom red and white brick Victoria terraced house has a high evergreen hedge at the front.
Along both sides of the road sits top of the range Mercedes, BMWs and Audis.
McBrearty, who pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust at an earlier hearing, put her head in her hands and sobbed in the dock as Judge Sheelagh Canavan sentenced her on Friday.
McBrearty took the teenager to her parents’ £750,000 home in Wanstead Park, east London, where she performed sex acts on him and had sex
McBrearty, 23, kissed and had sex with the boy at her parents’ home, in her car, in the classroom and in an IBIS hotel
McBrearty and the teenager ‘kissed passionately’ in the classroom
Jailing her for a total of 16 months, the judge described McBrearty as a ‘bright, intelligent and gifted young woman, who knew right from wrong,’ but said she had committed the ‘grossest breach of trust’.
‘You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child.
‘I accept he was consenting – what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?’ she said.
‘I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn’t matter. But it did,’ the judge continued.
‘You were supposed to keep him safe, to help him make the right decisions.
‘Instead, you helped him make all the wrong ones.’
The court heard the relationship began when McBrearty sent the boy, who cannot be identified because he is a victim of a sexual offence, a friend request on social media.
Prosecutor Lisa Matthews said he ‘felt special’, adding: ‘She started to take him out to parks, including the Olympic Park, they went on strolls and out for meals.
‘He appeared to be besotted with her.’
The court heard the pair had seven sexual encounters, starting when McBrearty took the youngster to her home.
On other occasions she booked a hotel room for sex and performed sex acts in a garage and her car.
She also kissed her pupil in a classroom at the school.
The court heard the relationship came to an end when the victim’s father contacted police.
The court heard the relationship began in January, when McBrearty followed the boy on social media and asked for his phone number.
As a ‘birthday treat’ McBrearty picked the boy up and took him to a nearby garage for oral sex
Emma Shafton, defending, said: ‘This is a young lady who has had a spectacular fall from grace – university educated, comes from a respectable family – she has been utterly disgraced by this.’
She told the judge her client ‘is not sexually attracted to children’, but added: ‘She will of course be branded a paedophile for the rest of her life. She is a sex offender.’
The barrister added: ‘She has not been able to get a decent job that matches her qualifications. She has of course resigned from the teaching profession. She has been working on a zero-hours contract delivering parcels to Amazon.’
The teacher was jailed for 16 months at Snaresbrook Crown Court after having an affair with a pupil