Teacher spared jail for having sex with a pupil after she tells court she was abused when she was a teenager



Eppie Dawson had sex with pupil in a layby and was found by police

She lost her job as a result of the tryst and her marriage was left in ruins

Told the court she had been sexually abused when she was a teenager



Will be sentenced next month but was told she would not be going to jail



Teacher Eppie Sprung Dawson has moved the teenager, now 18, into her home despite being on the sex offenders' register

A teacher who admitted having sex with a pupil had been abused when she was a teenager, a court heard yesterday.

Eppie Sprung Dawson, 27, was targeted when she was aged between 13 and 18 by a man 29 years her senior, a sheriff was told.

Yesterday, Dawson was told she would escape a custodial sentence after earlier admitting having sex with the 17-year-old boy in the front seat of her car last December.

She will have to return to court to learn her fate next month, but a sheriff told her she had breached a position of trust, although she had not abused anyone.

Sheriff George Jamieson added: 'You were there simply to teach but you have been called into temptation and you have committed adultery – your marriage is gone, and your career as a teacher is gone.

'What you have been charged with is breach of trust, and I cannot see that there is anything to be gained by a custodial sentence.



'Had it not been for the fact that you were this young man's teacher, there would have been no criminality.'

Dawson, of Dumfries, will return to court on July 10 to find out what counselling and help is available through social work services and to give her a chance to attend psycho-sexual counselling.

Sheriff Jamieson said it was likely she would be made the subject of a community payback order, but it had not yet reached that stage.

Earlier this year, Dawson admitted that on December 21 last year, while she was in a position of trust and being the teacher of the youth, she engaged in sexual activities with, or directed towards, a person under the age of 18 and that she had sexual intercourse with him.

The court heard earlier that she had picked up the pupil in Dumfries, drove to a secluded layby on the Cummertrees to Hoddam Road.

Police noticed the car and, as they approached, they saw condensation on the windows.



When they approached the parked car, they knocked on the car door and saw the accused and a male, both naked from the waist down, having sexual intercourse.

Dawson had sex with the student after she offered to give extra help to at St Joseph's College, Dumfries Sprung Dawson's marriage to husband Ranald ended after the affair was revealed and the student is now living in their former marital home in Dumfries

Dawson taught at St Joseph's College in Dumfries and had earlier agreed to give the dyslexic teenager extra lessons.

Her agent David Finnie said that she had been abused when she was between 13 and 18 by a man 29 years her senior.



Although it did not provide an excuse, it gave some explanation as to the background.



He added: 'This case is about one incident and there was a complete lack of any malice on the part of Eppie Sprung Dawson. There was no intention to cause any harm or problems to the other party.

'What we are dealing with is an incident involving a woman of 26 and a teenager who is now 17 and a half. It was one incident, on one occasion and we are not dealing with a more extended period of abuse.'

Dawson, who is now on the Sex Offenders' Register, is no longer employed by Dumfries and Galloway Council. She was married to Ranald Dawson, 32, son of former Solicitor General for Scotland Lord Dawson.

Mr Finnie described Dawson as a gifted, talented and committed teacher who was dedicated to her job: 'She has all the facets that are required to make a first-class teacher and she has thrown all that away.