By NATALIE CLARKE

Last updated at 22:44 09 February 2008

Could there be a more devastating - and humiliating - domestic drama for a wife and mother to find herself caught up in?

It began when Julia Richards discovered her husband, Clive, 49, a religious education teacher, was having an affair with a 16-year-old former pupil and took an astonishing twist when, three days after Julia had walked out on him, he installed his teenage lover in the family home.

Incredibly, the girl, Jess Anderson, is now acting out the role of "stepmother" to Julia's 14-year-old son Benjamin.

Scroll down for more...

Every day, Jess and her "stepson" Benjamin take the bus to the Penzance school, where Clive was working until last April.

Julia is powerless to remove her son from the house because he has said he wants to stay with his father - a man who, unbelievably, was training to be a vicar until the scandal blew up.

According to social services, Benjamin has "rights" and must have the final say on where he lives, regardless of his distraught mother's wishes.

"It is absurd," says Julia. "Jess is 16 and she's got her 'rights' according to social services, who insist she can live with Clive if she wishes. Benjamin is 14 and he's got his 'rights'. I'm Benjamin's mother and I haven't got any rights, Jess's mother hasn't got any rights to get her home safely. They are children, for goodness' sake.

"Benjamin has said to me: 'It's not right, Mummy, Jess goes to the same school as me.' But Clive is normalising the situation to Benjamin. What they are doing may be legal, but it is morally wrong. I can't believe a schoolgirl is now living in my house with my husband."

Last weekend, Julia allowed her other son, who is seven, to stay overnight with his father in an attempt at retaining a vestige of normality for the child.

When she picked him up, he said to her: "Mum, you'll never guess what I saw when I was at Dad's house. I saw Dad and Jess naked on the bed."

"When my son told me, I was so angry it was all I could do not to crash the car," says Julia, a 38-year-old teaching assistant who is studying for a degree with the aim of becoming a teacher.

"But I managed to stay calm and just said: 'Really?,' and changed the subject.

"I am so worried about Benjamin. As a parent I need to protect my son, but that right has been taken away from me. What is going to be the long-term effect on him? Clive may insist this ridiculous situation is normal, but I'm sorry, it's most definitely not."

Sadly, Jess Anderson, who is deputy head girl at her school - and it must be said bears a striking resemblance to a younger Julia - has swallowed Clive Richards' "love has no boundaries" line.

In her mind, they're just two people in love; the 33-year age gap is incidental.

But if that is the case, what will she make of Julia's revelation that Jess is not the first girl at the school in Penzance, Cornwall, with whom Clive Richards has had a relationship?

How will she feel to discover that another girl of 16, also a pupil at the school, became involved with him at the end of 2006?

Julia describes lovey-dovey texts between her husband and this other girl, talking about "kisses and cuddles", clandestine meetings at Tesco and - eventually, under duress - a confession from her husband that the girl had visited the family home to meet him alone on at least one occasion.

"When I found out about Jess, I thought, 'oh no, here we go again'," says Julia. "Looking back, I should have reported him to the school the first time, but I was so fearful of what might happen, that he might even be sent to prison. It was a terrifying prospect.

"I should have left him then and there, but I was afraid of the emotional impact it would have on our children."

And so she stayed - only to walk out last month after finding out about Jess.

Today, Julia and her younger son are in limbo, camping out in a room at a friend's house.

Meanwhile, Jess has the run of Julia's lovely house in the village of Goldsithney, outside Penzance.

Unsurprisingly, she is appalled that her marriage could have come to this.

Julia was 19 when she met Richards in 1989. Both were working for the Beneficial Bank in Birmingham: Julia as a cashier, Richards as a mortgage manager.

The Marlborough-educated son of a vicar had already clocked up two marriages, but his consummate charm displaced any worries Julia may have had. "Clive was a sophisticated, intelligent man. He is a very convincing character, which is how he gets away with what he does," she explains.

They were married in 1990, and their first son was born in 1993. "We were happy enough at first. I suppose it started going downhill after Benjamin was born. Clive likes to have lots of attention and he was jealous."

After completing a part-time degree in education at Warwick University, where he specialised in philosophy and religious education, Richards took up teaching.

It was in September 2005 that he took up his post at the Penzance school, and a year later Julia met Jess Anderson for the first time at the girl's 15th birthday party on a local beach.

At the time, however, he appears to have had his eye on the other girl.

Just three months later, in December 2006, Julia found a text on her husband's phone. "It was along the lines of: 'I can't wait to see you at the usual place for a hug and a kiss,'" says Julia.

Scroll down for more...

"I was stunned. I recognised the girl's name because she was one of the pupils on his email list - the reason I became suspicious and checked his phone was because he was constantly emailing people.

"I realised I had met this girl at a drama event at the school.

"I knew she was only 16. It was hard to take in the enormity of what he was doing and I could not bring myself to confront him immediately. Perhaps, I was terrified of what I would discover.

"A few days later, he was at the computer with his phone propped up next to him. I got the impression he was emailing this girl.

"When I checked the message he'd sent back to her, it said something like: 'Ah, my beautiful girl, looking breathless and gorgeous,' which was just awful. I knew then that I had to confront him.

"I asked him what on earth he was doing, did he have any idea the trouble he could get into, that this was so wrong? But he emphatically denied that anything was going on and made it seem as if it was all in my mind."

Over the next couple of weeks, Julia discovered more texts. One mentioned a meeting at Tesco; in another the girl asked what time Julia was going out, and Richards responded that his wife was leaving the house at 4.15pm and would be back at 10pm.

Julia went out as planned, but a couple of days later, she informed her husband that she'd had the house watched and she knew the girl had been there. It was a lie, but Richards incriminated himself by believing it.

"At first he said how dare I get someone to watch the house, but eventually he admitted that she had come round that night. He claimed they hadn't slept together but had kissed. I just didn't know what to believe.

"He said how sorry he was for hurting me, he knew it was wrong - wrong in terms of doing this to his wife, mind you, not in having a relationship with one of his pupils.

"I told him that if he ever saw this girl again our marriage was over. He promised not to, and as far as I'm aware, that was the end of it between them. I was appalled at what he had done, but I was terrified of rocking the boat, of opening this can of worms."

After that, Julia says, their marriage simply "plodded on", though she was determined to talk to the school's head teacher about the liaisons. When she did, after her husband had left her for Jess, she was stunned to discover the school had been aware something inappropriate may have taken place.

"The head said they'd got wind of a text or something. She said she had reported it to the authorities, but that no action was taken. I don't even know if Clive was questioned."

Yesterday, a school source said: "The head did hear something, but there was no evidence he'd done anything wrong. She reminded him he must act professionally at all times."

And so Clive Richards was free to pursue Jess Anderson. She was a pupil in his RE class and quickly fell under his spell as Richards subtly flattered her.

In April of last year he took sick leave after his doctor diagnosed depression. But that did not stop him seeing Jess.

Julia says she cannot be certain of the precise date when Jess's name started cropping up at home, but believes it was around June or July of last year and possibly even before.

"Clive and Benjamin would go to the beach and our son would say to me: 'We had a nice time, we bumped into Jess.' But was it accidental?

"Clive and Jess keep saying now that what has happened is above board because he left the school in April and their relationship didn't start until October, but he did not leave the school, he was off sick.

"He was being paid a full salary until August 31 when his contract came to an end. The school said it couldn't afford to renew it, but I don't know if that is really the case."

Julia is highly sceptical about the pair's claim that their relationship did not begin until October last year.

She points to one suspicious occasion around September 5 or 6 - just over a week before Jess's 16th birthday, and before it would have been legal for them to have sex.

"Clive, Benjamin, Jess and another friend called Josh were supposed to be going off kayaking for the day. Later, Benjamin told me that just he and Josh went, and Clive and Jess stayed home and talked. Am I supposed to believe that is all they did?"

Around that time, Julia discovered numerous texts between the pair (she checked his phone after the business with the other girl).

One from the teacher to his pupil hinted at tortured passion: "Remember all things are possible in time."

Another one, Julia suspects, had a far more explicit meaning.

"I got the impression they had pet names for each other's intimate parts," says Julia, "and it said something like: 'I can't wait to introduce my one to yours.' It was disgusting.

"The situation was unbelievable, but every time I confronted Clive about it he denied the existence of any texts. He was trying to suggest I was mad."

Relations between Julia and her husband were stretched to breaking point, and in mid-December, at his instigation, they agreed to separate.

Was Clive Richards pushing his wife to the point where she would agree to split - thereby leaving the way clear to pursue Jess.

"It was agreed that we would remain in the same house for the sake of the children, but be separated," says Julia.

"Things had not been right for a long time between us, and I am the first to say that Jess did not actually break up the marriage, she just hastened its death."

But Clive was still blindly denying that anything was going on, and the following night Julia insisted he come clean.

"I said it was not right to treat me like a fool and he finally admitted it and said they were in love with each other.

"I was so shocked by his complete absence of any morals. I said to him: 'I can't stop you, if you want to see her, then fine.'

"People might take that as condoning his actions, but I wasn't. I just felt I had no control over my husband's appalling behaviour."

Five days later, Julia was preparing for a day out when she got the sense that her husband might take the opportunity to see Jess.

"I decided to check how many condoms there were in a drawer at home before I went out, and there were eight.

"When I came back there were six. But worst of all, I found an empty wrapper in the bathroom. That was when I reached breaking point."

On January 14, she packed a small bag and left, taking her younger son with her. Out of loyalty to his father, Benjamin decided to stay.

It seems Jess moved in sooner than planned because word of their affair had "got out" when Julia informed the head teacher and social services were alerted.

Richards and Jess, who has refused repeated pleas by her own family to return home, are happily ensconced in their love nest.

He is claiming incapacity benefit and now that Julia, who was the wage-earner, has gone, he is claiming housing benefit.

While Julia watched her marriage implode, Jess Anderson's distraught mother Frances learned that her daughter had moved in with Richards only after Jess sent her a long email explaining that she had fallen in love with her teacher and was legally within her rights to live with him.

Frances told me earlier this week how powerless she feels and how the social services team has done nothing but inform her daughter of her "rights".

Julia feels similarly impotent. Her only option to get Benjamin back is to file for a residency order, but that would mean her son having to speak in court, and she is unwilling to put him through that.

She hopes he will find the courage to tell her that he wants to leave.

The other day, Julia went round to the house to pick up some things for her son. "I thought Jess might have wanted to make herself scarce but she was there, in my kitchen, calmly doing the washing-up.

"I could have picked up a frying pan and bashed her over the head, but what would be the point, so I kept my composure. She kept her back to me and no words were exchanged.

"Jess is a nice girl, I'm not going to condemn her. But she's obviously got no common sense and is completely deluded. I hope she has a lot of luck because she is going to need it."

Words that Jess will probably dismiss as those of a bitter wife. One day, though - and perhaps sooner rather than later - she will almost certainly realise that her lover's wife, and her own family, were absolutely right.