Mirfield teacher Stephen Grant jailed for sex offences

Oct 29 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A TEACHER who tricked boys into sending him indecent images of themselves by pretending to be a promiscuous teenage girl has been jailed for 18 months.

Pervert Stephen Grant, 31, also a former town councillor in Mirfield, admitted his crimes in a confession box and was told by a priest to give himself up.

RE teacher Grant gave the impression the girl was a fictitious niece of his called Charlotte who needed a boyfriend when, in reality, he was the person at the other end of the line making sexual suggestions.

Speaking at Leeds Crown Court, Michael Smith, prosecuting, said that Grant had befriended former GCSE boys at a West Yorkshire school and it never crossed their mind the 19-year-old girl talking “dirty” to them through a chatroom was anything other than a member of the opposite sex.

Some of the teenagers went along with the request to send sexually explicit pictures of their private parts, although others refused in spite of the make-believe girl promising to send pictures back of herself.

One 16-year-old was sent pictures purporting to come from the girl showing her involved in sexual acts in return for his performing a sexual act in front of a webcam.

Because he then regretted what he had done, he stopped contact with her, only to receive persistent text messages asking why he was no longer in touch.

When vile Grant was arrested he denied any sexual gratification involved, blaming a specific physical interest.

Dermot Hughes, for Grant, said he was a “troubled soul” who was now seen as a social leper.

The offences were in fact juvenile and amateurish and, however disturbing for the youths and families involved, they were also rooted in fantasy, showing he needed help, Mr Hughes said.