A teacher accused of having s3x with a 16-year-old pupil has told a court she wanted to be liked, was easily influenced and found it difficult to say “no” to people she wanted to please.
Bronwen James, 30, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of four counts of s3xual activity with the teenager while she was working as a PE teacher at Bitterne Park School in Southampton. Prosecutors allege James had s3x with the boy on three or four occasions after they began communicating on Snapchat.
Giving evidence, James denied having a s3xual relationship with the teenager and said he had fabricated the allegations to appear “cool” in front of his friends. She told jurors she began teaching at the age of 21 and now considered herself immature at the time, easily influenced and too lenient with pupils.
“I just don’t think I was ready for it. As my career progressed, I realised maybe I was seeking validation from the wrong people,” she said. “I think I was a very lenient teacher, I was not strict, there were behaviour policies I would not necessarily follow, such as using mobile phones in lessons. But I did not want to upset them, I did not want to anger them. I wanted them to like me.”
James suggested that leaving her phone on her desk while teaching may have given the teenager an opportunity to access her Snapchat account. She admitted exchanging messages with him but said the conversations were only “brief” and were not constant. Her defence barrister, Heather Stangoe, asked why she had communicated with a pupil despite knowing it was against school rules.
James replied: “I think I wanted to be liked. I did not want to let people down. I was easily influenced. “I found it hard to say ‘no’ to people I wanted to please.” James acknowledged that there was “banter” between her and pupils but denied that it was ever s3xual. She also denied flirting with the teenager, supplying him with vapes or being slapped on the bottom by him.
However, James admitted that she later lied to police by claiming the boy had never visited her home in Fareham because she did not want the situation to “blow up.” She told the court she had been walking her dog when the teenager messaged her asking for a lift home.
James said she agreed because his destination was on her way home and picked him up in her car. According to her account, she first drove to her house to drop off her dog and use the toilet before taking the teenager home. She maintained that he remained downstairs while inside the property and that no s3xual activity took place.
Prosecutor Edward Culver challenged her account, suggesting that she had given the teenager a lift because she had previously flirted with him. He also pointed to what prosecutors said was the teenager’s ability to provide police with an accurate sketch of the upstairs layout of James’ home.
“I suggest there’s a lot of mysteries in this case. It’s wholly implausible he was able to provide that plan unless he had been in your bedroom a number of times,” Culver said. “It’s all explained by you having a relationship with him, having s3xual activity with him. There’s no other plausible explanation.” James replied: “It did not happen.”
The court previously heard prosecutors allege that James “flirted” with the teenager before accepting his request to add her on Snapchat. After exchanging messages, prosecutors said James drove him to Weston Shore in Southampton, where the pair parked and kissed in her car.
They allegedly later returned to James’ home and had s3x on three or four occasions. Culver told the court that on one occasion the pair watched television together while Wimbledon was on before allegedly kissing and touching each other.
“The tennis was on at Wimbledon. They began watching TV before kissing and touching each other,” he said. “She took her clothes off and then he took his clothes off.” Prosecutors allege that the pair then engaged in s3x acts before having unprotected s3x.
Jurors were also told that James allegedly sent the teenager daily messages saying she “loved him” and “wanted to move away” with him. The alleged relationship came to the attention of the school after another student showed a teacher messages said to have been exchanged between James and the teenager.
Culver said: “They suggested a s3xually charged relationship, he was named as ‘number 8’ in the messages as a cover, him being the eighth man she had slept with. “Her photo was visible on the phone screen.” After the allegations emerged, James was interviewed by police under caution.
She prepared a statement saying she had received communications from an unknown number that later turned out to belong to the teenager and suggested he was “being put up” to make the allegations by another student. James, of Chippenham, Wiltshire, denies all four charges of s3xual activity with the boy. The trial continues.
