Why Was This Female Paedophile Not Sent To Jail?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4148038/PE-teacher-31-affair-15-year-old-schoolboy.html

If it had been a male teacher, I am sure that he would have been sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence, and quite rightly so.

[mikey4444]

I too, am a little uneasy AOG. Just when we taking sexual abuse seriously, this isn't the right message to send.

[ummmm]

Because she's not a paedophile. I don't know why this has to be constantly explained.

//Ms Sharman was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that could bring the profession into disrepute by a panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership//

[hereIam]

Very odd how women can get away with it by not going to prison.

[andy-hughes]

First and foremost because she is not a paedophile - her interest was not in a pre-pubescent child.

Secondly, and I suspect most tellingly, the victim did not press charges which I would imagine would directly influence the sentencing structure.

And finally, it would appear that the relationship was consensual, it is described as 'intimate'.

Those combined factors would all appear to have been considered before the sentence was issued.

[hc4361]

Not a paedophile as boy was 15. Not in jail because victim refused to press charges and so no evidence

[hereIam]

^ Fair enough.

[andy-hughes]

None of the posts preceeding mine were visible when I composed my response.

As ummmm agrees, the woman is not a paedophile.

As far as 'getting away with it' hereIam - I don't think being publicised and having your career destroyed is really 'getting away with it'.

[hereIam]

Oh God andy putting me right AGAIN !!!

[mikey4444]

HC has it right. This woman has lost her job and will not be able to get another working with children again. Perhaps that is punishment enough, although I am still left somewhat uneasy.

[andy-hughes]

hereIam - //Oh God andy putting me right AGAIN !!! //

You could see it that way - or you could see in it in the way it was written - a simple difference of opinion. That would save you getting all het up about it.

[jno]

since she hasn't been charged, there's nothing to get away with. The same would be true if she'd been a male. No charge, no trial, no jail sentence.

She certainly hasn't "got away with" unprofessional behaviour, she's been banned for life.

[hereIam]

I'll carry on seeing it that way andy I think, I prefer it that way..

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

I think that a certain footballer was classed a paedophile and sent to jail for a number of years even though he did not actually have penetrative sex, plus the fact that the relationship was consensual, and the young girl also did not press charges, if my memory serves me correctly.

[mikey4444]

AOG....wasn't that footballer freed after an appeal ( if we are talking about the same footballer )

[ummmm]

AOG - he groomed her. That's the difference.

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// since she hasn't been charged ///

Yes but the question must be asked why wasn't she charged?

[andy-hughes]

AOG - //I think that a certain footballer was classed a paedophile and sent to jail for a number of years even though he did not actually have penetrative sex, plus the fact that the relationship was consensual, and the young girl also did not press charges, if my memory serves me correctly.//

I am unsure of the case to which you refer.

The fact is, the media love to use the word 'paedophile' even when it is not the correct term, because it has seriously emotive connotations.

In this case, it is clear that this woman is not a paedophile in the accepted sense of the definition of the term.

[RandyMarsh]

I assume that AOG is talking about Adam Johnson and he has a point.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - //Yes but the question must be asked why wasn't she charged? //

Answered in your link - and by previous posts - the young man in question declined to give evidence.

It is not possible to go to court without evidence.

[jno]

aog, I suppose because if the victim and only witness doesn't want to press charges, the prosecution service may suspect their case won't stand up in court.