I regret what happened, I shouldn't have gone along with it: The 15-year-old pupil seduced by his RE teacher reveals how it's ruined his life



Shamed: Teacher Madeleine Martin arriving at court where she was jailed for having sex with a pupil

One of the worst aspects of prison life is the time it affords its inhabitants to think. Since being locked up last week, Madeleine Martin has had more time than she would like to reflect on the events that led her to such a place.



In the cold light of day, does she feel shame and humiliation, or is she still trying to excuse her outrageous behaviour?



Mrs Martin, a 39-year-old religious education teacher with a previously exemplary record, has just begun a 32-month jail sentence for having sex with a 15-year-old boy who was a pupil in her class.



She had been assigned as 'mentor' to the boy to encourage him with his studies, but unfortunately chose to interpret the word in an entirely inappropriate fashion.



Mrs Martin, who had separated from her husband before she became involved with the boy, is the mother of two teenage daughters.



Their devastation and humiliation at their mother's actions is all too easy to imagine.



This is the latest in a disturbing number of cases where women teachers have been jailed after entering into relationships with pupils - and raises serious questions about collapsing moral boundaries in our schools.



In his first interview today, the boy and his father tell their story. For legal reasons they cannot be named, so we shall call the pupil Robert and his father Chris.



It's a fairly graphic story of a series of sexual encounters conducted largely inside Madeleine Martin's Alfa Romeo 147.



Robert presents a rather tragic picture of a wildly infatuated woman who had convinced herself of the possibility of a serious relationship with a pupil a year younger than her eldest daughter; a woman who risked sex in public places with her young pupil; a woman who had clearly taken leave of her senses.



Robert is an ordinary teenager. His parents are divorced, he lives with his property developer father in the Greater Manchester area and sees his mother most evenings.



At school, he admits he has not applied himself as much as he could have and has got into trouble from time to time for playing up in class. He has had girlfriends, but looks and acts exactly as you would expect a 15-year-old boy might.



During our interview he thinks carefully about each question before he answers, and is open and honest.



'She made all the running and I just went along with it... It's not the sort of thing you do with your teacher, is it?'

He does not speak in a boastful manner. It will pain Mrs Martin and her family to read his assessment of their relationship, delivered with the brutal honesty that is the preserve of the young.



'I liked her as a teacher, but I wasn't really that attracted to her,' he says. 'She made all the running and I just went along with it.



'It was one of those situations you find yourself in without really knowing how it's happened, and as soon as we were in it, I was thinking to myself: "How do I get out of this?"



'It was weird. It's not the sort of thing you do with your teacher, is it?'



No, it isn't. The pair met when she joined the comprehensive in Greater Manchester in September last year. Then, that December, she took on the role of Robert's mentor.



This involved regular hour-long one-to-one teaching sessions in her classroom after school.



'At first, during lessons I had no sense of her being attracted to me,' recalls Robert. 'But when the mentoring started she offered to give me a lift home afterwards, and by January she was taking me home practically every day.

'Sometimes she would say to me: "Feel my hands - how cold they are," which I found odd, and I would quickly touch them and pull my hand away.'



Around this time, Robert and his father, Chris, saw Mrs Martin together at a parents' meeting at the school. Chris recalls there was something 'not quite right' about the meeting.



Regrets: Mrs Martin's teenage victim whose identity has been obscured for legal reasons

'She was perfectly nice but she was very on edge,' he says. 'I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, but, of course, I would never have guessed why.'



Clearly, by this juncture, she had resolved upon seducing Chris's 15- year-old son.



Robert says: 'One Friday when she took me home, she stopped the car near the house and asked me for a hug,' says Robert. 'It felt a bit weird, but I just hugged her quickly to get it over and done with so I could get out of the car.



'On the Monday, when I saw her again, she asked me if I'd felt uncomfortable hugging her and I said I didn't because I didn't want her to feel bad.



'She told me she had family problems, that her sister was ill with cancer.'



Four days later, Mrs Martin asked for Robert's phone number. She did not call but sent him a message on Facebook, the social networking site, to which he replied that he didn't have time to respond properly.

'When I went to bed that night she started texting me at 11.30pm saying she really wished I hadn't had to go [off Facebook], and I replied I was sorry, too, as I didn't know what else to say.

'She said she'd been drinking quite a few glasses of wine, and said there was someone she liked, but that it was wrong. I could see by now where this was leading, but I asked her several times who it was and she eventually said it was me.



'I remember thinking: "This is all a bit mad." I was a bit attracted to her, but not much, really.'



The mentoring meeting the following Monday was rather awkward but Martin offered to drop Robert home.



On the way she stopped the car and hugged him again, then began kissing his neck.



'I liked her but it wasn't as though she was dead good-looking. I was thinking: "Oh my God! This is really weird, how is it going to end?"'

'We started kissing, and after a while I asked if she was going to take me home and she said she really didn't want to go.'



Given the highly illicit nature of what was happening, one might have at least expected Martin to conduct herself with some discretion. Not so. She drove her young charge to a cinema and restaurant complex with a busy car park: in short, about as public a place as you are going to find.



'We climbed in the back of the car and had sex,' says Robert.



The encounter was cut short after they heard a voice on a loudspeaker - presumably someone working at the cinema or one of the restaurants who was stunned at what they were seeing - reading out their number plate and ordering the car to leave immediately.



'When we heard the loudspeaker telling us to move, Madeleine panicked. She said she thought it was the police and quickly drove off.'



But she did not come to her senses. Later that night, Robert received a text from her saying she had 'really liked' the sex.



Over a nine-day period, there were to be ten sexual encounters in total.



'The first time we had sex we had no protection and she said she was on the Pill,' says Robert. 'This time she said she'd forgotten to take it, though I found out later she wasn't on the Pill at all.

'As far as I'm aware, she did not become pregnant.'





Already Robert had misgivings about the sexual adventure he had embarked on with his teacher.



'I liked her of course, but it wasn't as though she was dead good-looking. I was thinking: "Oh my God! This is really weird, how is it going to end?"



'But Madeleine was very happy and even phoned Robert's father while she was with him at a 'mentoring' class to say how well Robert was doing. Which you might call brazen cheek.



Around this time, Madeleine had asked her RE class to produce an essay on the ethics of abortion.



'I hadn't got round to doing it, so she said she'd do it for me,' says Robert.



She was obviously pleased with it, for he received top marks.



After several more sexual encounters in her car, Martin attempted to elevate this sordid arrangement into something resembling a normal relationship.



She invited Robert over to dinner at the house she shared with her children. 'She said one of her daughters was on a school trip and she'd told the other she had a man coming round and to stay with a friend,' says Robert.



'I told Dad I was staying at Mum's house. She was away at the time, but I told my brother who was staying there that I was staying with a mate.



'If other boys were there, she would send them off on various errands so she could be alone with me'

'Madeleine cooked some Chinese food and I helped her. She offered me some wine but I refused. We watched The Deer Hunter then went to bed.'



The next day, however, Robert had an overwhelming sense of wishing to avoid his teacher.



Over the next week, Mrs Martin sent a number of text messages which Robert either ignored or replied to telling her he couldn't talk as he was tired and was going to bed.



After a week, an increasingly desperate Martin texted to say she had to see him.



'I had to get it over with so she picked me up in the car and we went to the dirt path we had been to before,' says Robert.



'She said she couldn't carry on like this because she didn't want to get hurt. I was very relieved.'



But Madeleine Martin was obsessed. According to Robert, she would find a pretext to give him detention.



'I wasn't behaving any differently than before, but she would put me in detention. If other boys were there, she would send them off on various errands so she could be alone with me. Then she would ask me why I was behaving the way I was, and I would say it was no different to the way I usually was with her.



'Then, one time, she asked me to give her a hug and I started laughing and refused. When she asked why not, I said: "Because you're the teacher."'



How crushed Martin must have been when Robert laughed at her, and how ironic that it was he who had to point out to her the blindingly obvious fact that what had happened was wrong.

'It was starting to do my head in,' he says. 'I was thinking about it constantly.'



Robert confided in his elder brother in April, and together they told their mother and then their father.

'I do feel upset and angry about how all this has affected my schooling. I can't see what future I have now'

'I hadn't told anyone up till then but I had to confide in someone, offload it,' adds Robert



His mother immediately called the police and Robert gave them a statement. Martin was arrested the next day at the school, and was later bailed on condition she lived at an address in Nottingham.



Robert's involvement with Martin has had serious ramifications for him. He says he still feels angry, and his father says that at times Robert is more quiet than he used to be.



It's a lot for a 15-year-old to have to cope with. After the scandal broke, Robert felt too embarrassed to return to school. He has been attending a local college two days a week, studying for GCSEs in English and maths.



'I applied to go to another local school where I spent my first couple of years in senior school, but they said they had no places available. I didn't want to start afresh somewhere new where I wouldn't know anyone, so at the moment I'm at this college.



'It's full of people who have been expelled from other schools and some of them can barely write their names.



'I do feel upset and angry about how all this has affected my schooling. I can't see what future I have now, and I don't know if I'll even be able to get a job because of all this.'



At her trial at Manchester Crown Court, Martin's defence team said she had been upset by the news that her sister was gravely ill with cancer. Does Robert's father believe this is any sort of excuse?



'I'm afraid not. I'm very sorry to hear about her sister, but using it as a defence sounds like clutching at straws to me.



'This was a clear abuse of the position of trust in which she had been placed. She took advantage of the situation. She crossed the line.



'It's extremely shocking and has been devastating for our family. And it isn't just us. I feel for her daughters, I really do. What they must be going through right now must be terrible.'



His son adds: 'I wasn't glad she was sent to jail but I think it is right. She has done wrong. I just wanted it to be over and I am relieved that it is. I don't feel anything about her but I regret what happened. But I shouldn't have gone along with it. It's my own fault.'



Robert is being rather harsh on himself. Yes, he did go along with it, but he is a 15-year-old boy who had no idea how to handle his teacher's advances.



And in her heart Madeleine Martin must know that she, and she alone, must be blamed both for Robert's plight and for her own.



