Wife’s agony as ‘exemplary’ RE teacher is guilty of sex with 50 Shades of Grey girl
A HIGHLY respected religious studies teacher was facing jail last night after he was convicted of having a sexual relationship with a besotted 16-year-old pupil.
Married Stuart Kerner, 44, had sex with the girl at school – taking her virginity in a store cupboard on a yoga mat.
He also took her to his family home when his wife was at work and had sex with her in their guest bedroom. In between sex sessions he made her Marmite on toast and they watched Bargain Hunt on television.
His defence tried to claim the victim had invented a fantasy relationship based on the novel Fifty Shades Of Grey, in which an older, more experienced man has an affair with a younger woman.
But Kerner was convicted by a majority verdict of two counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
Father-of-one Kerner, who was also vice principal at Bexleyheath Academy, South East London, sobbed as the verdict was delivered. His wife Katharine was inconsolable and fled from the court.
‘She’s destroyed our lives,’ she said. ‘This is a miscarriage of justice, she’s a liar’.
The victim, now 19 but who cannot be named for legal reasons, nodded as the verdict was delivered.
Over two weeks, Inner London Crown Court heard how the ‘troubled’ victim had a schoolgirl crush on Kerner and was ‘besotted’. It was said he ‘gave in to temptation’.
A member of the victim’s family reported the affair to police in 2013 and Kerner was sent home from school on gardening leave.
Prosecutor Warwick Tatford said: ‘This was a gross breach of trust – a teacher giving in to temptation. The Crown aren’t say-
‘Took advantage of a vulnerable girl’
ing she’s innocent in all this. She was anxious to have a relationship with him ... (But) he was a senior teacher who took advantage of a vulnerable young girl.’
The court was told that the pair first had sex on February 28, 2012. Kerner sent a message to the girl while she was in class, asking her to meet him. She was on ‘tenterhooks’ as she was ‘anxious to lose her virginity’.
‘My first lesson was IT,’ she said. ‘In the lesson I had a note. It said, “Go to reception immediately”. My name was on it, it was in his handwriting. I didn’t go to reception – I went to his office. He said go to this room during the fourth lesson.’
She said they then had sex after Kerner moved a table in front of the door and put a blanket over a yoga mat. She later feared she was pregnant, it was claimed.
Shortly afterwards, someone using Kerner’s login and password changed the victim’s attendance record on the school computer system to say she had been in the lesson.
The following day Kerner was absent from school as his wife, who supported him during the trial, had a miscarriage.
In a video interview with police played to jurors, the schoolgirl said: ‘I felt special. But, I dunno, it wasn’t really. And admitting that does kind of hurt.’
She said ‘hand on heart’ Kerner would never have made a move on her without her encouragement, and that she fell ‘in love’ with him.
She told a detective: ‘I knew it was wrong, but it felt right as well ... There was always a little voice at the back of my head saying “He’s just using you”.’
Kerner denied all the charges, saying the girl was a ‘devious and wicked liar’. He claimed she had found out details about him – including the type of underwear he wore and about a scar on his back – from eavesdropping on his conversations with other teachers.
Kerner said she also knew information about his home because he had given a presentation about his home life to pupils. But she was able to draw a detailed plan of his £500,000 detached home in Aylesford, Kent, for police, pinpointing the guest bedroom where they had sex on October 3, 2012.
Mr Tatford said: ‘ It’s possible that [ the victim] could have found out things but she would have to be a real detective to find out everything’.
He added: ‘Somebody is lying, it’s either [the victim] or Mr Kerner, whoever it is is telling very wicked lies...[if it’s Kerner] he’s deceived his friends, his colleagues at school and his wife’.
The victim told police that on October 3, Kerner picked her up in his car from a leisure centre before driving her to his home. Kerner made her Marmite on toast while they watched Bargain Hunt on television during breaks from sex. She said: ‘It was probably the best day I can remember, just being with him.’
After sex in the guest room, the pair also roamed the house, where the teacher had a large photo of his eight-year- old son hanging on the wall, she said. Analysis of Kerner’s phone showed he made two journeys to Bexleyheath at around the same time the victim said he picked her up and then dropped her off. The girl told the court how she also kept a coded diary and marked each page with different ‘smiley faces’ to record their encounters.
She said Kerner bought her a souvenir Fifty Shades Of Grey keyring. The girl’s mother later found a keyring matching its description in a box in her bedroom.
She told police Kerner had described their relationship as ‘written in the stars’ and likened their affair to the well-known case of a teacher who ran away to France with a pupil.
A number of colleagues gave evidence on behalf of Kerner, saying he was a ‘great teacher’ and the court heard he was previously ‘a man of exemplary good character’. Speaking about Mrs Kerner, Edward Ellis, defending, said: ‘She has been supporting her husband, the man she fell in love with 25 years ago. She gave him a son which Mr Kerner dotes on.’
The jury of six men and six women cleared him of four other charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
They also cleared him of two counts of sexual activity with a child, which were said to have happened when she was 15.
Judge Joanna Greenberg warned Kerner that all sentencing options remained open. He was bailed until sentencing on January 14.