A Fife teacher who stroked a pupil’s arm and asked her to form a relationship with him in an “egregious” abuse of trust has been jailed.
Lee Dempsey was a teacher at a high school in Glenrothes when he made sexual contact with the girl of upper secondary school age at his then-home in the town’s Fleming Place.
The 45-year-old had earlier contacted her on Snapchat, initially under an alias, and met her in a car park in the town before driving her to his house in 2023.
Dempsey, of Loch View, New Cumnock, had denied the offending and claimed he was helping her with study support.
He was found guilty of the sexual abuse of trust following an earlier trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Sheriff Steven Borthwick told him: “I have had the benefit of a victim impact statement from the complainer and it’s clear she has been very significantly affected by your behaviour on this occasion.”
‘Society is properly outraged’
The sheriff noted that during an interview with social work, Dempsey indicated he was aware that he contravened professional boundaries but was of the view that it might not be required to go to court.
Sheriff Borthwick continued: “You could not be more wrong.
“Persons employed working with children carry a heavy weight of responsibility and society is properly outraged when persons in such a position of trust breach that trust and commit sexual offences against children to whom they have responsibility and owe a duty of care”.
The sheriff said he took into account that Dempsey is a first offender and has an otherwise unblemished record of employment.
He added: “With regard to the whole circumstances, I consider it is appropriate, given the egregious breach of trust, the maximum sentence (summary) be imposed”.
Sheriff Borthwick jailed Dempsey for 12 months.
Dempsey, who was using crutches during his trial and at sentence, was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Took girl back to house
In her closing submissions in the trial last month, prosecutor Lauren Pennycook said Dempsey accepted creating a Snapchat account, not using his own name, to contact the girl and arrange to meet her.
Ms Pennycook said he met her in a car park and suggested returning to his house on a Friday when he knew his wife was out.
She said he took the girl to his house to “have her on her own” and “began to tell her about the feelings he has for her”.
He told her about “issues in his marriage” and set out three options to the girl, one of which being that they could “form a relationship”.
The prosecutor said: “During that, he has been hugging her, touching her arm, before then taking her back to a random street from his point of view – somewhere she asked to be dropped off.”
The court heard the girl told someone she knew about what happened and she was in distress.
Defence lawyer Gordon Martin had argued for a non-custodial sentence.
He suggested there was not a “significant degree” of planning involved as, although Dempsey used the alias to contact her, he identified himself in the first message to her.
He said the sexual contact itself was relatively minor, though acknowledged the impact on the complainer.
Mr Martin highlighted social work assessed Dempsey as being at low risk of reoffending.
Following Dempsey’s conviction last month, Mr Martin said his client is no longer employed as a teacher and the conviction will be admitted to the General Teaching Council.
The charges
Dempsey was found guilty of engaging in sexual activity with or directed towards the pupil while in a position of trust.
He repeatedly contacted her on a social media platform, requested that she meet him in person, and on an occasion he met her in Glenrothes town centre and at his address.
He stroked her arm with his hand, repeatedly embraced her, and requested that she form a relationship with him and repeatedly asked her that she not tell anyone about their meeting and any relationship.
The offending spanned a period of a week in 2023 and is a contravention of Section 42 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.
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