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A female teacher who started a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old pupil at a £25,000-a-year girls' school was jailed today.

PE teacher Emily Fox, 26, swapped hundreds of inappropriate messages with her teenage victim via email, text and WhatsApp

They went on to have sex on several occasions and took great care to keep their relationship secret.

Police were called in after the pupil tried to print an e-mail from Fox which was seen by her father.

Judge Stephen Gullick jailed Fox for for 15 months saying: "The character references are glowing and your career shows you were gifted and well liked.

"This career will never be available to you again.

"You had direct responsibility to her. You owe not only her but her parents a duty to keep her safe and secure.

"In my judgement you were always aware your relationship with [the victim] was not only unwise but unlawful.

"This type of behaviour from teachers towards pupils is not to be viewed as anything other than extremely grave."

(Image: SWNS)

As Fox was sent down she looked up to her parents in the public gallery, shrugged her shoulders and mouthed: "I love you".

The court heard she started teaching at the Royal Masonic School in Rickmansworth, Herts., in 2010.

She met her teenage victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in November 2012.

By Easter 2013 the pair's relationship had become "intense" with the schoolgirl telling Fox she "loved her as a friend" and "cared for her".

The relationship was only discovered after the victim tried to print an email before she left for a holiday.

The machine jammed and the email printed itself a week later when the girl's father was using the machine.

Fox was arrested but both she and her teenage lover, now aged 16, refused to give formal interviews.

(Image: SWNS)

Sally Mealing-McLeod, prosecuting, said: "It was clear the defendant knew that if the relationship became known it would ruin her career.

"There were a significant number of messages between the two trying to cover up this relationship.

"They were aware that what was taking place was wrong."

Fox, of Bath, Somerset, admitted four counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust at St Albans Crown Court on August 7.

She was jailed today at the same court. Fox was told her name will remain on the sex offenders register for the next 10 years.

She was also made the subject of a Sexual Offence Prevention Order.

(Image: South Beds News)

The Royal Masonic School for Girls was founded in 1788 to educate the daughters of Freemasons who were unable to support their families.

Fees for the school are as much as £8,500-a-term for full boarding - giving a yearly total over three terms of £25,500.

Its famous buildings have been widely used in films and television including two Indiana Jones films, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade.

The site was used as one of the locations for a film called Me and Orson Welles starring Zak Efron and featured in an episode of Inspector Morse.

It takes pupils aged seven to 18 with former pupils including Wendy Richard, who played Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, and actress Amelia Warner.