A teacher has been jailed after he groomed a student for more than a decade, had sex with her while she was still a teenager and eventually married her.
The man, now in his 60s, and who cannot be identified, appeared at the Napier District Court in New Zealand this week after being found guilty of sexual connection and committing an indecent act with a girl aged between 12 and 16 years old.
The couple met when the young woman began her first year at an Auckland secondary school in 2007, when she was just 12 and he was 50.
He began to pay special attention to her and, from the age of 13, he touched the young student on her hips and butt, The New Zealand Herald reported.
A teacher was jailed after he groomed a girl when she was just 12 and then married her (file image)
When she moved schools, the two stayed in touch and the girl began spending more time at the teacher’s house.
Over time, the touching became more sexualized and progressed to the point where the student was left naked.
They dated for two years while she was a minor, from 2008 to 2010.
The court heard the teacher waited until the girl turned 16 for her to move in with him and start having sex because he feared she would otherwise go to jail.
The relationship, which was initially a secret, was discovered by the girl’s mother, who eventually accepted it and the couple moved from Auckland to Hawkes Bay.
When she was 22, the couple married but the relationship soon broke down.
The woman moved to Australia and reported the teacher to New South Wales police in 2021, resulting in her arrest in New Zealand the following year.
The court heard the woman had dropped out of school and struggled with addiction. She and the teacher had used cannabis together on occasions.
Judge Richard Earwaker said the teacher’s sexualised treatment of the girl was “premeditated criminal behaviour”.
‘You were a teacher. She was between 12 and 15 years old. You were a person of authority whom she admired,” she told the court.
Judge Earwaker sentenced the professor to two years and eight months in prison. He was also placed on the child sex offenders register.
