A secondary school teacher has been jailed after he sent naked selfies of himself to a schoolgirl – with his genitals covered by smiley-face EMOJIS.
Pervy Christopher Wood, 33, sent the explicit pictures of himself to the teenage pupil on Snapchat, who then responded by sending a topless snap of herself.
A court heard he had a “sexual interest” in schoolgirls and also made internet searches for ‘”student, teacher and sex” before he joined the school in 2015.
The Chemistry teacher groomed his victim and plied her with alcohol before beginning a sexual relationship with her in order to “play out his fantasy.”
He then used smiley face emojis to censor images he sent to the teen on a Snapchat conversation in which his user name was “Idon’tgiveaf**k.”
On Thursday (31/8) Wood was found guilty of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust at Birmingham Crown Court.
He was jailed for 15 months and ordered to sign on the Sex Offender’s Register for ten years.
Sentencing, Judge Mark Wall said: “Christopher Wood, you were at the start of this trial a qualified teacher in his early 30s of good character.
“I am sure that you have a sexual interest in schoolgirls.
“In 2009 you made searches on the internet for ‘sex with teacher’, ‘inappropriate relationship’, and ‘student teacher sex’.
“I reject your evidence that this was an effort to find out what might happen to teachers wrongly accused of such conduct.
“Any doubts that might have existed about those searches are dispelled by you searching in 2013 for ‘f***ing schoolgirls tumblr’.
“When your computer was interrogated by the police it was also found to contain images of girls in school uniform in what in times gone by might have been called a saucy pose.
“You were persistent and clever in grooming [the victim].
“You twice gave her alcohol to drink and you set up a snapchat conversation with her in which your identity was ‘idon’tgiveaf**k’.
“You were doing it to play out your fantasy.
“Having obtained (her) trust, you started to send images of yourself.
“They were of you topless wearing only a towel or a pair of bottoms to cover your penis.
“These were sexual images designed to interest a vulnerable young girl and excite you sexually by the thought of her looking at them.
“This exchange of images would have been completely unacceptable between any man in his 30s and an underage girl: they are so much more so when one considers the position of trust that you were in.
“You chose to send her a photograph which showed you being given oral sex by a previous sexual partner of yours, and another of you having penetrative sex with that same person.
“You covered your private parts with electronic emoji stickers when you sent the images but they left little to the imagination.
“Again you did it because it gave you a sexual thrill to think of these girls looking at images of you having sex.
“Your conduct is deserving of a prison sentence.”
The court heard how the offences related to his time as a teacher at a school in Solihull, West Mids.
Wood, formerly of Dorridge, Solihull, but now from Tregaron in Ceredigion, Wales,
was cleared of a second charge of causing a child to watch a sexual activity.
Michelle Heeley QC, prosecuting, said Wood had become very close to a female pupil and she and her friends would hang around the chemistry lab.
She told the court Wood and the girl, who cannot be identified, became closer and began to communicate on Snapchat.
One witness told the court how her friend started getting close to Wood and started to see him “more as a friend than a teacher”.
She added: “He was actually a lot nicer than she [the victim] initially perceived him to be.
“She would start to go to him a little bit more, it got a little more regular, she would start to go on breaks and lunchtimes.
“She never disclosed he had sent her fully naked pictures, I know she has seen pictures of his wife fully naked.
“She said he had shown her a picture but you only could see the back of his wife, but she was naked.
“It was just after that I was aware she had him on Snapchat – she had received that image on Snapchat.
“She told me he was holding his phone below him, angled below him, and had a hand over his penis.
“She didn’t tell me about clothing or lack of – I didn’t see this image myself.
“She sent him pictures of her breasts through Snapchat.”
Another girl, who said she had seen inappropriate pictures of Wood, added: “The photos were some of handjobs and blowjobs he had previously had with other girls, not his wife.
“He covered his penis with a smiley face.
“The next picture of him was lying down on the bed – you could tell from the picture – and a lady’s bottom and his penis going in, covering it with an emoji.
“You could see her bottom, they were naked – the male, I believe, was Mr Wood.”
