A maths teacher who offered schoolgirls £300 to pose topless and sent naked pictures of himself to a 16-year-old girl has been jailed for more than two years.
Neil Mason, 28 – who taught at The Heath School in Runcorn, Cheshire (UK) – made sexual suggestions to girls, often texting under a pseudonym and using Facebook, Chester Crown Court heard.
He used pupils at the school as ‘sex objects of desire to satisfy his sexual lust’ and admitted intimately kissing the girl to whom he sent the naked images on the lips and stroking her leg.
Maria Masselis, prosecuting, added: ‘There was a lengthy and intense history of inappropriate contact. He wanted her to go to his home and engage in sexual contact. She felt scared. He stroked her leg and kissed her on the mouth.’
Police found 17 images of the girl, topless and nude, on his computer.
Other victims said they felt ‘scared’ and ‘betrayed’ and could no longer trust male teachers. The judge described Mason as ‘a parent’s worst nightmare’ who had ‘corrupted’ the lives of children.
‘Parents have a right to expect that their children will be safe when they are in school and be taught, not regarded as sex objects of desire to satisfy a teacher’s sexual lust.
‘That is what you did to these four girls. You are a sexual predator. You have brought shame on your profession, yourself, your family, your school and your colleagues.
‘Children are sent to school to learn and be educated, not to be corrupted by a man like you. You have endeavoured to corrupt four girls. This is a parent’s worst nightmare.’
Mason was jailed for two-and-a-half years. After the sentencing, Cheshire Police Detective Constable Tim Murray said: ‘Mason used his position of trust to prey on vulnerable teenage girls.
