London - A religious studies teacher had sex “all over” school with a teenage pupil during an 18-month affair, a court heard on Wednesday.
Vice-principal Stuart Kerner, 44, “gave into temptation” and had sex with the girl in a series of empty rooms - including a storage area.
Jurors heard how he took the 16-year-old’s virginity in one room as she skipped a lesson - and later tried to amend the school register to make it look like she had been in class.
The court heard how he had sex with the “besotted” pupil in the same week his wife miscarried with their second child.
The teacher, who is said to have started the affair when she was 15, also took the girl home, where they watched Bargain Hunt on TV between sex sessions, it is alleged.
Inner London Crown Court heard on Wednesday heard how she was a “thoroughly willing participant” in the affair after becoming infatuated with the teacher at Bexleyheath Academy in south-east London.
Prosecutor Warwick Tatford said the girl “actively sought” the relationship but accused Kerner - who taught religious education, politics and ethics - of a “gross breach of trust”.
“He took advantage of a vulnerable girl who was besotted with him,” he added. “(It was) a teacher giving in to temptation.”
The court was told how the girl was “anxious to lose her virginity” and had sex with Kerner for the first time in February 2012 on a blanket he had brought with him. Giving evidence, she said: “My first lesson was IT. In the lesson I had a note. It said, “Go to reception immediately”. My name was on it, it was in his handwriting. I didn’t go to reception - I went to his office. He said go to this room during the fourth lesson.”
She said they then had sex after Kerner moved a table in front of the door and put the blanket over a yoga mat. The schoolgirl later feared she had fallen pregnant, it was claimed.
Although she was marked absent from class, her attendance was allegedly later changed on an electronic register by someone using Kerner’s username and password on a computer.
Tatford said: “He’s changed (her) from being absent to being there. But she wasn’t there, she was having sex with the defendant.” The girl on Wednesday told jurors how she had an all-day sex session at the teacher’s home while his wife was at work.
She told police she was picked her up from a leisure centre in October 2012 before being driven to his home in Aylesford, Kent.
Kerner had allegedly hidden condoms in bedside tables and he made her Marmite on toast while they watched Bargain Hunt on television during breaks from sex.
She said: “It was probably the best day I can remember, just being with him.”
After sex in the guest room, the pair would also roam around the house, where the teacher had a large photo of his eight-year-old son hanging on the wall, she said.
On another occasion, when the girl was 15, jurors heard she performed a sex act on him during a week when she was doing work experience at a police child abuse unit - which he described as “a bit ironic”.
The girl, now 19, told the court how she had kept a coded diary and marked each page with different “smiley faces” to record their encounters.
She said Kerner also bought her a keyring with the handcuffs, a ruler and a mask from the erotic novel 50 Shades Of Grey. “He said he thought it was an appropriate gift for me,” she added. “He also bought me chocolates.”
The girl told police Kerner had described their relationship as “written in the stars” and likened their affair to the well-known case of a teacher who ran away to France with a pupil.
The court heard how they had sex for the final time in a store room in the school’s PE block.
The affair was discovered when the girl’s mother looked at her phone and found “sexual material” unrelated to the case, jurors heard. She challenged her daughter who revealed the relationship with her teacher, it was said.
Kerner, described as a highly regarded teacher with 20 years’ experience, told police the girl was “a pathological liar and a fantasist”.
He denies eight child sex offences. The trial continues.
Daily Mail