A FORMER teacher who had sex with a pupil has been jailed and ordered to pay £10,000 in compensation to his victim.
Christopher Sillitoe, 72, sexually abused the girl while working at a school in Basildon.
He was jailed for more than four years at Basildon Crown Court yesterday where the court heard he and the girl engaged in various sexual activities while she was a pupil at the school.
He was charged with eight counts of indecent assault following more than 44 incidents which date back to the seventies.
Prosecuting Emma Nash said: “He was her teacher and he was 29 and started paying her attention.
“The contact became mutually flirty and the sexual contact continued until the late nineties.
“He had a girlfriend who became his wife.
“As she got older he didn’t like her seeing other men and would put them off her and became very controlling and wanted to know where she was and what she was doing.”
The court was told the abuse stopped the victim from having meaningful and successful relationships and a family.
A victim impact statement read out in court said: “I was a lonely vulnerable child and he took advantage and used to get out a dolls outfit and wanted me to wear it.
“I was made to feel dirty and worthless and I felt he had a perfect life and I had nothing.
“He stole the best years of my life.
“I’ve missed out on having children and grandchildren and used alcohol as a coping mechanism.”
Mitigating for Sillitoe Jerry Hayes said he had been “foolish”
He said: “He’s been a fool and made the mistake so many others did and fell in love with a young girl and it was reciprocated.
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“This is a tragedy for his wife as he’s got to sort out his marriage and it went on for a very long time.”
Judge Samantha Cohen sentencing said: “You were an attractive man and had been a captain in the territorial army and were a hero in her eyes.
“You were arrested in 2019 after she felt she would be believed and falsely claimed it happened when she was over 16.
“You show little understanding of what you did and I am concerned you show a great deal of sorrow for yourself.”
Sillitoe, now of Calstock, Cornwall, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison and ordered to pay £10,000 in compensation.
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