Teacher cleared of assaulting pupil
A teacher at a Catholic girls’ school wept wept as he was cleared by a jury sexually assaulting a pupil.
Philip McDermott, 59, was accused of engaging in repeated acts of sexual activity with the girl while teaching her at a London school.
She claimed McDermott touched her intimately at a Bryan Adams gig in the summer of 2016 and sexually assaulted her in a park after taking her out for a romantic pub lunch.
The alleged victim claimed the grooming started in after-school study clubs and ‘got stranger’ through email exchanges.
She said the incidents happened in 2016 but she said she only reported McDermott years later because she was in ‘big, black pits of shame’ and thought it was her fault.
But McDermott wept in the dock at Isleworth Crown Court after the jury cleared him of eight sexual offences after deliberating for around four hours.
Earlier this week the prosecution offered no evidence against McDermott on one charge of sexual activity with a child and one of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
McDermott taught the girl PSHE in year nine and RE the following year when she was 15.
He had accepted there was a ‘closeness’ between them but described the girl as a ‘conscientious, happy pupil of his’.
He denied his relationship with the girl ever became sexual
McDermott, of Westwood Hill, Crystal Palace, denied and was cleared by the jury of five counts of sexual activity with a child, two of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
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