Teacher cleared of having sex with special needs pupil

LONDON - A British teacher has been cleared of having secret sex sessions with a 16-year-old special needs student, a media report said.

Daily Mail reported that thirtynine-year-old Teresa McKenzie was sacked and her two young children put under the scrutiny of social services after she was accused of seducing the teenager.

She was also accused of having sex with him at the British Library, a luxury hotel and in the back of her car while sending him steamy love notes.

A jury, however, took barely 50 minutes to dismiss the allegations by the teenager.

McKenzie wept as the verdicts were read out in court. The special needs pupil invented the stories to ‘big himself up’, the media report said.

McKenzie said the past two years had been “very traumatic”.

“This case demonstrates the risk that dedicated and committed teachers are prepared to take every day. I was dealing with a deeply disturbed and suicidal teenager who demanded exceptional care and support.

“I gave him the attention he deserved in his desperate predicament. I know that I was exposing myself to the risk of false accusation. I persevered because I was able to distract him from taking his own life,” she was quoted as saying.

McKenzie’s troubles started in September 2008 when the teenager, who suffered from a series of personality disorders, told his mother he had a ten-month affair with his teacher.

She was accused of having sex with the teenager at least ten times, including in the disabled toilets of the British Library and at the four star Cumberland Hotel, Park Lane, London.

The student admitted in court that he dreamed of having a relationship with McKenzie, who had joined the school in February 2006. He also admitted he lied about having sex with a teacher at another school and a social worker.