Schoolboy ‘lied about sex with teacher to impress friends’, court told

The schoolboy who claims he had sex with his teacher has been accused of lying about the relationship in an attempt to impress his friends.

Eleanor Wilson, 29, is alleged to have had sex with the teenage pupil on a flight back to the UK from an overseas camping trip in summer 2015.

Anna Midgley, defending, accused the boy of being ‘infatuated’ with Wilson, that led to her being blackmailed.

Miss Midgley said: ‘You were thinking about her a lot, and you were infatuated with her, and you had told your friends that things had happened that in fact had not happened.

‘You had boasted to your friends and that led to rumours starting and someone started to blackmail her about that.’

WIlson was sent a series of emails by one of her pupils, including an explicit photograph of his genitals, threatening to expose her alleged relationship with the boy unless she had sex with him.

The boy contacted her after hearing about what allegedly happened on the flight.

Wilson, then aged 26, is accused of kissing and cuddling the teenage student before ‘beckoning’ him into the toilet cubicle where she performed a sex act on him and then had semi-naked intercourse.

Bristol Crown Court heard that within weeks of the pair returning from the trip rumours had spread around the school that she was in a relationship with a student.

She was quizzed by the school’s head teacher and denied it, and without the name of the boy the investigation could not continue.

By February 2016, Wilson had begun receiving the anonymous emails, which threatened to tell the head teacher.

The first said: ‘I know about you and (the boy) and do you want that coming out?’

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A second said: ‘Reply in 24 hours or it will slip out. We wouldn’t want that, would you.’

Within hours of the first message Wilson had told another teacher – leading to a police investigation – but she continued to receive emailed threats.

The blackmailer was soon identified and left the school, while Wilson was suspended after admitting seeing the complainant outside of lessons as he was a ‘screwed-up kid and she was just trying to help him’.

Earlier, the jury heard the boy deny he was infatuated with the defendant, insisting it was not a fantasy and he was telling the truth.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said a ‘bond’ developed between him and Wilson while they were abroad.

She gave him her mobile number which he saved on his phone as ‘Smurfette’.

Wilson’s barrister suggested the plane would have been busy with teachers, pupils, other passengers and cabin crew and what he claimed happened did not take place.

One pupil on the trip said he saw the boy sitting on Wilson’s lap during the flight.

The witness, who had been ill during the journey due to food poisoning, described what he saw but added: ‘I was completely dazed and unwell and it was a dark cabin and I couldn’t see very well.’

The complainant, who said he was ‘reasonably intoxicated’ after drinking red wine during the flight, had previously described how he and Wilson allegedly had sex in the cubicle.

Miss Midgley said: ‘When you came out of the toilet you were close enough together, making the risk that other staff and pupils and cabin staff could have seen you together.

‘It’s just not true. Nothing had happened.’

Miss Midgley also suggested another allegations of kissing, cuddling and holding hands, which allegedly occurred in the boy’s bedroom and at Tintern Abbey and the Ashton Court estate, were ‘fantasy’.

She said: ‘Would you accept that you were infatuated with her when you got back from the trip, thinking about her all the time, wanting to be with her and not thinking clearly?

‘But she never approached you physically or sexually. That might be what you wanted, but it never happened.’

The boy, who was giving evidence from behind a screen, replied: ‘That is incorrect.’

Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, denies four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

The trial continues.

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