Timothy Gledhill was convicted of assault for squirting his girlfriend with a water pistol/SWNS

A maths teacher has been convicted of assault after squirting his ex-partner with a water pistol.

Timothy Gledhill, 40, wept in court when he was told a judge would not be overturning the conviction.

Gledhill feared professional ruin after he was found guilty of soaking his furious victim with a child’s toy in a “humiliating” attack during two heated rows.

During the appeal at Canterbury Crown Court, he admitted to the judge and two magistrates that he couldn’t rule out that the water had not accidentally hit Catherine Weir in the attack.

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Mr Gledhill insisted he had done nothing wrong/SWNS

However he insisted: “I haven’t done anything wrong. She was just trying to get me into trouble. It isn’t illegal to hold a water pistol. It’s just a toy.”

The court had been played a recording of the incident made by Ms Weir in which she was heard shouting: “Stop it, stop it. Stop shooting at me.”

Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl and the magistrates dismissed Gledhill’s appeal saying they could not accept his version of events.

The judge said: “What you did wasn’t funny. It was done to humiliate your former partner. You thought you were being clever in covering your tracks. But she was a victim of an assault and there is no doubt about it.

"You knew perfectly well what you were doing. You did it to in some way humiliate her and to put one over on her.”

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The hearing took place at Canterbury Crown Court/Creative Comms

Gledhill voluntarily left Canterbury College in February and took up a post at Canterbury Academy where he has the school’s full support.

Head teacher Phil Karnavas said Gledhill has spent several thousands of pounds trying to clear his name.

He said: “It has left most of us somewhat surprised that A it got that far and B we’ve ended where we have.

"Mr Gledhill continues to have my full professional and personal support. The bottom line is he’s a really nice, honourable and decent bloke that has found himself in a situation that none of us would like to find ourselves.

"He was so morally offended by it and so upset by the fact that he was carrying the record for something he didn’t recognise as being anything other than being a bit daft.

"It’s cost him a significant amount of money and has experienced a significant degree of nervous anxiety and professional stress.

"I think spraying someone with a water pistol doesn’t really seem to me to be an offence to public safety let alone a halfway appropriate use of public money.”

The teacher, of Sturry, Kent, was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £400 costs for the assaults on Ms Weir in July 2014.

