Hayley Southwell walked free from court today after being found guilty of engaging in sexual activity with the girl

A female PE teacher who groomed a girl pupil and then filmed them having sex in hotel rooms escaped jail yesterday.

Hayley Southwell, 27, started a relationship with the girl when she was 15 but waited until her 16th birthday to have sex with her.

Yesterday Southwell was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to engaging in sexual activity with a child under 18 in a position of trust.

The court heard how Southwell had started the nine-month relationship with the pupil at The Nelson Thomlinson school, in Wigton, Cumbria, in May last year.

At the time the pupil, who cannot be named, was 15 but Southwell groomed her and planned to have sex with her as soon as she turned 16.

Prosecutor Greg Hoare said: ‘Police investigations did not show there was anything of a sexual nature that occurred before she turned 16.

‘It was plain they were counting down the time till this girl was 16 and thereafter a sexual relationship did occur.’

The affair came to light after the school received a telephone call in January, identifying Southwell as being in an inappropriate relationship with a pupil.

Southwell, who posted pictures of girl pupils taking part in a school sports day on her Facebook page, was then arrested, and her mobile phone and two iPad tablet computers were seized from her home.

The 27-year-old wept as she was spared jail after being told there was a 'degree of grooming and planning' to her behaviour

The pair embarked on a relationship with Southwell was teaching at Nelson Thomlinson School in Wigton, Cumbria (pictured)

Police found a large number of messages and images of Southwell and the girl, showing them in various locations around the country, including in Nottingham, Liverpool, Alton Towers and in hotel rooms.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said Southwell the pair 'rather unattractively' exchanged 'explicit' messages



There were both videos and photographs they had shared with each other, which were ‘intimately explicit’ and of a ‘sexual nature’, it was said.

Sentencing Southwell at Carlisle Crown Court, Judge Peter Hughes QC said: ‘Anyone who chooses a career in teaching knows that it is wholly incomprehensible in the profession to have an inappropriate relationship with a pupil.’

He said that while it appeared to be a case of ‘mutual affection’, adolescent boys and girls who were discovering and coming to terms with their sexuality were vulnerable.



He added: ‘There was a degree of planning and in my view grooming because this was a relationship that began before the girl concerned was ... 16.



'You and her were waiting for her to reach that birthday before you started a sexual relationship.

‘It was rather unattractively recorded both in still and moving images and that in my judgment was an aggravating feature in this offence.’

The victim, who is no longer at the school, refused to give an impact statement to the court. In mitigation, David Polglase said Southwell had previously kept her sexuality hidden from her mother and that she had shown a ‘degree of bravery’ by admitting the charge.

He said she had ‘genuine emotion and feeling’ for the girl and that at the time Southwell felt ‘emotionally vulnerable’ due to a past relationship.