THEY have become faces of depravity – abusing their positions of trust to prey upon pupils and disgrace the teaching profession.
Inspiring disgust and horror among parents across Britain, the likes of , and have had their sickening crimes splashed across the news, but what is it like to have to defend paedophile teachers like them – and what are their lives like in women’s prisons?
Solicitor Marcus Johnstone – who has represented at least in the last five years – says it can be jarring listening to clients’ explanations who will almost always “try to justify” their actions.
He said he’s heard many “pathetic excuses” as to why a teacher has felt the need to communicate with a child, adding: “It’s quite sad to listen to.”
He told The Sun: “By the time we deal with them, they are quite desperate to avoid any problems – not only are they facing but they’ll never teach again.
“There have been many arguments… and sometimes the rationale is disturbing.”
Most of such clients are men, and many have even been found to have committed further offences, including downloading indecent images.
He said, worryingly, their victims maybe even convinced they’re actually in love and refuse to co-operate with the prosecution – sometimes even contacting their abusers after they’ve been caught and even sending them love notes.
The lawyer, MD of PCD Solicitors, said, conversely, the female teachers he’s represented have generally exclusively been accused of targeting teenage boys – telling him “there’s nothing wrong with it” when the victim is 16 or 17.
Mr Johnstone continued: “Of course, in many other scenarios, by that is the case – but not when they’re in a position of trust.
“Their attitude is very much, ‘I’ve not done anything wrong’. They just often won’t accept it.”
Mr Johnstone, who has worked across almost all prisons in the UK, said, interestingly, paedo female teachers’ crimes are more tolerated in prison where there is no segregation for sex offenders.
He said: “Female sex offenders are very few and far between – it’s uncommon but when it happens, especially involving a teacher, often it makes the press.
“They’re usually quite young, at the earlier part of their teaching career, in their 20s.
“Maybe because they’ve got more of an affinity to older pupils… Not to condone their actions.”
He went on to say: “There seems to be a theme running through this with the females, they do tend to have very specific mental health issues, their cognitive skills are lacking.
“They’re just not recognising the problems that they’re getting into and why it’s illegal.
“For various reasons they seem to be attracted to certain pupils that they’re teaching and they think it’s fine.”
Mr Johnstone said the cases can become more complex when dealing with teenage boys as the victims, including in one circumstance it was found another male pupil found out about an affair with a school pal and tried to blackmail the female teacher.
“Sometimes, I suppose it’s easy to lose sight of things in that sense,” he added.
“There’s lots of scenarios that need to be clarified in such cases.”
Asked if, like many of the men, also find indecent images on their devices, he said: “That’s not the case with women, strangely – it seems that there’s virtually no cases with females involved with indecent images of children.
“It’s just not a thing usually.”
Mr Johnstone explained one such case saw the prosecution arguing that his female client had known the victim since they were around 10, and had clearly groomed them from a young age.
“She would say ‘no, I’m caring for my pupils and giving them help and support’ – but there’s always going to be a line to be drawn,” the lawyer said.
“If somebody is looking after a child or taking them presents – is that necessarily grooming?
“Some might argue yes.
“Clearly it oversteps the mark if the teacher has other intentions and takes it further.”
Mr Johnstone went on to say, from his experience, the victims are usually “particularly disadvantaged”, perhaps coming from a “poor or disruptive family”, and not used to getting so much positive attention from adults.
What’s more, Mr Johnstone said: “I know the issues in prison and how they’re dealt with.”
He explained that it is “interesting” how male and female jails differ, including in their views of child sex offenders.
In women’s prisons there are no sex offender wings like in the men’s, which helps keep such lags protected from the rest of the general population.
Asked if female prisoners show the same hostility to sex offenders, he said: “You don’t tend to find that with women because there are so few female sex offenders.
“There just wouldn’t be enough to fill one of the wings. So they tend to mix with the normal prison estate.”
He said prison officers will often keep careful eye on women sex offenders, to see if it’s known amongst the rest of the inmates why they’re in prison, to monitor any potential trouble.
“Unless it’s been reported in the press, it wouldn’t be known,” he said.
“And unless they choose to tell their fellow prisoners, it shouldn’t get known.
“Clearly, a female who, for example, harms a baby, a young child, then if that’s made known, they’re going to be open to abuse and need special protections.”
Britain's paedo teachers
Gary Day-Davies — Salford, 2026: Teacher jailed for 15 years for rape, sexual assault by penetration and sexual touching of a pupil.
The offences occurred between 2006 and 2009; Greater Manchester Police said some abuse occurred at school and some at his home after he invited the pupil there for extra tuition.
Edward Waller — Southampton, 2026: Former history teacher at St Anne’s School, jailed for six years.
The CPS said he groomed a vulnerable 16–17-year-old pupil between 2004 and 2006, initially giving her extra attention before calls/messages became sexual and he eventually had sex with her.
Emily Drury — Lincolnshire, 2026: Former teacher, 26, jailed for four years and six months after pleading guilty to five sexual-activity offences involving a teenage male pupil.
She had offered to tutor him for his GCSEs and the sexual behaviour occurred while she was acting as his private tutor.
Syed Shahreear Ahmed — Essex/London, 2025: Former maths teacher, 36, sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with a five-year extended period after convictions for 21 offences including grooming, rape, sexual activity with a child and indecent-image offences.
This one is slightly different from the clean “teacher grooms own pupil” pattern: the CPS says he used social media to target numerous girls and young women while employed as a secondary-school teacher.
Craig Smith — South Lanarkshire, 2025: Former drama teacher who admitted sexually abusing three female pupils.
He initially contacted one pupil ostensibly because he was concerned about her panic attacks; messages became explicit and he later engaged in sexual contact with her at school.
He also abused another pupil on school grounds.
Rebecca Joynes — Greater Manchester, 2024: Maths teacher, 30, jailed for six-and-a-half years after being convicted of six counts of sexual activity with children.
She groomed two male pupils from the age of 15; remarkably, she began a sexual relationship with the second while on police bail for offences involving the first, and later had a child with him.
Russell Tillson — Tonbridge, Kent, 2023: Former senior teacher at Tonbridge School, jailed for five years and eight months for indecent assaults on two pupils. The offending stretched back decades.
In one incident he offered a boy an enhanced university reference and suggested it could be achieved through what he called “unconventional methods.”
Carole Ann White — Scotland, 2022: Teacher jailed for three years after being convicted of sexual offences against two boys.
Police Scotland specifically described her as being in a position of trust when she committed the offences.
Steven Bould — Derbyshire/Staffordshire, sentenced 2021: Maths teacher jailed for 33 months after admitting nine offences of intentionally sexually touching underage girls.
Seven offences occurred while he worked at Pingle Academy and another two while at Nether Stowe School.
Aimee Jones — Darlington, 2021: Teacher jailed for eight months after admitting four sexual offences involving a female pupil aged between 13 and 17 during the relevant period.
She was subsequently banned from teaching indefinitely.
Kandice Barber — Buckinghamshire, 2021: Married mother-of-three and cover supervisor/form tutor at Princes Risborough School, jailed for six years and two months after being convicted of sexual offences against a 15-year-old male pupil.
Barber began communicating with the boy in 2018 and the exchanges became sexual; she sent him topless images and a sexual video before arranging to meet him in a secluded field, where they had sex.
The sentencing judge found she had groomed the boy and later used threats and manipulation in an attempt to prevent disclosure.
She was also made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and was prohibited from teaching indefinitely in 2024.
Reports revealed that while she was incarcerated at an open women’s prison, Barber met and began a relationship with Jay Delaney, a convicted fraudster
He added: “Women are generally not as violent as men.”
Mr Johnstone said, from what he’s seen of female lock-ups, if a female teacher of say 25 has had a relationship with a 17-year-old pupil: “I don’t think that would cause any major problems even if it was made known inside prison.
“So it does depend on the type of offence that’s being committed.”
For the men, it can be very different, with specially segregated wings for sex offenders – or in several cases in the UK, specific prisons for such inmates.
They will sometimes get asked if they wish to be segregated or housed with mainstream prisoners, Mr Johnstone explained.
“Some clients in the past will say, ‘no, I don’t want to be’.
“If you have, for example, a 25-year-old male who was seeing a 17-year-old girl, and it’s only an offence because he was her football teacher or in another position of trust, then he may feel he’s done nothing wrong… he’ll take his chance in mainstream prison.
“Maybe he wouldn’t have that many problems, even if they knew about it, because of that scenario.”
Mr Johnstone said in some such cases as that, he’s seen it where the offender and victim “actually both want to be in that relationship together”.
In such circumstances, the pupil themself hasn’t actually complained – it might be a parent or a schoolfriend.
“Of course, the young girl believes that she’s truly and madly in love with the teacher,” he said.
“She doesn’t want to complain… I’ve had cases where because the complaint hasn’t come from the girl, it’s been a slight problem for the prosecution because she’s not a willing participant, she’s not a willing complainant.
“Sometimes the police will go to great odds to try to, with the witness liaison and the specially trained police officers, they will often spend quite some time with the child, really just helping her to understand what’s gone on, to process it, and to start to rationalise it, to think that this is more of a grooming thing, rather than she’s in love.
“And it takes on all sorts of legal complexities, because to what extent are the police then trying to create an offence, or to try and create a complainant?”
The victim is sometimes even keen to continue communication with messages and even letters to their abuser.
“There is often a complexity to these cases that maybe doesn’t always come across in the press,” said Mr Johnstone.
“I don’t know if there’s something that can be done at an earlier level, during teacher training to filter out future offenders – but, I suppose, how can it be known?”
