A 16-year-old boy accused of having a sexual relationship with his PE teacher told a court he denied it to his school and child protection officials because he wanted to “keep her sweet”.
Bronwen James, 30, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of four counts of sexual activity with a child in abuse of a position of trust. She denies the allegations and claims the boy was encouraged by another pupil to make them.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place while James was teaching at Bitterne Park School in Southampton. The complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told jurors that the teacher groomed him, although he initially viewed the relationship as “a teenage boy’s dream”.
Giving evidence through a police interview played to the court, the boy said he had denied the relationship when questioned because it was still continuing.
“I denied it all to keep her sweet,” he said. “I had a meeting with the head teacher and I denied it all again with Child Protection.”
The prosecution alleges that James developed a flirtatious relationship with the pupil, exchanging messages with him on Snapchat and arranging meetings at school. She is also accused of collecting him in her car so they could kiss before taking him to her home.
Edward Culver, prosecuting, told the jury that James had used her position as a teacher to pursue the teenager.
“She flirted with him. Exchanged messages with him. Took him to her home. And she had sex with him,” he said.
The court heard that the pair allegedly met at Weston Shore before James invited the boy to her house, where they watched Wimbledon. The prosecution claims they had sex there on up to four occasions and did not use protection.
The boy said they had flirted during lessons and that James would sometimes give him vapes inside his coursework. He told police she later approached him in class and asked, in a flirtatious manner: “Where were you last night?”
Describing the first alleged encounter at her home, he said they had been watching television with her dog nearby before kissing and going upstairs.
“At the time I was overwhelmed. It was great but, looking back at it, it was wrong,” he said.
The teenager also told the court that James asked him to call her “miss” when they were alone together. “I always called her ‘miss’, I don’t know why,” he said. “I think it was her little fantasy or something.”
He said James told him over the telephone that she loved him and wanted to move away with him. The call was made while she was outside a nightclub with other teachers at her leaving party, the court heard.
The alleged relationship came to light after a pupil showed another teacher text messages said to have passed between James and the complainant. Prosecutors claim the messages indicated a “sexually charged relationship”.
Wiltshire Police said James, from Chippenham, denies all four charges. The trial is expected to last seven days and continues.
