‘Teacher was found in bed with pupil by his sister’
A teacher accused of repeatedly abusing a pupil was found lying in bed with the boy by his sister, a court heard.
Deborah Franklin, 65, was also seen holding the boy’s hands during school trips, jurors heard.
Franklin is accused of eight counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14 between 1991 and 1995 at a preparatory school in Hertfordshire.
The complainant, now in his 40s, said he was nine when he joined Franklin’s class and she became his private tutor.
In a video recorded interview he described ‘countless’ sexual encounters in which married Franklin would tie him to her marital bed, blindfold him, tickle him with a feather and have sex with him.
He said: ‘At the time, I don’t think I was terrified. I wasn’t. I don’t remember being scared. But it began to bother me when I was around 14… I was tied to the posts, blindfolded and she was tickling me naked and I remember her being surprised I didn’t enjoy it. Her kind of quizzing me why I didn’t enjoy it, what I didn’t like.
‘I was there for some hours,’ he said.
‘I remember us coming back to it later and having sex on her bed.’
Giving evidence, the complainant’s older brother told jurors at St Albans Crown Court today: ‘I don’t remember her tutoring him but I remember her in my house a lot.’
‘I remember her being there extensively, probably two years. It was a long time.’
‘She was very nice and always pleasant, with energy, very cool. Someone you would be happy to hang out with.’
Asked what he saw her doing in the house he said: ‘I saw her with my mum and a lot with [my brother] in his bedroom.’
‘I have a memory of them watching TV.’
He said his brother went to Franklin’s house on at least one occasion.
‘He loved martial arts. Her husband owned a security company that hired personnel. One of them at least was very good at martial arts.’
He said that on one occasion Franklin took him to a heavy metal concert when he was 17.
‘Her husband had a security company that would also secure gigs. She took me to one of the gigs he was securing.
‘I think it was in Finsbury Park. There was a slight undertone to the event, it was heavy metal. There were loads of people I wouldn’t have been hanging out with who were queuing to go in.’
He said that at one point Franklin made a comment about an intimate sex act.
‘She turned back to look at me. She made a comment about anal sex. I asked if her husband likes it.’
He added: ‘She told me pillows are very important, because it allows you to go deeper if you have sex with pillows.’
Gavin Pottinger, prosecuting, asked him: ‘Did [your brother] ever tell you that anything had happened between him and Debbie?’
He replied: ‘It came up a lot that something had happened. He never told me the details, and I never asked for them. It came up over a lifetime. It came up consistently in different contexts.’
The complainant’s older sister told the court that she also found Franklin ‘cool’ when she first met her.
‘She was fun, she was charismatic,’ the witness said.
‘I thought she was cool, I liked her. She was very likeable.
‘She was in the house often. She became a family friend. She came on Saturday afternoons. I saw her quite a lot.’
Asked if she knew that Franklin was tutoring her brother she said: ‘As far as I am concerned that is what she was doing. That is what she was supposed to be there for.’
She said that at one point she found Franklin under the bedcovers with her brother.
‘She was in bed under the covers reading a book to him.’
Asked if she knew that something had happened she told jurors: ‘I knew something had happened, he told my dad.’
She said that when her brother found out Franklin was still working at the same school in 2024 he reported her to police.
A former school friend of the complainant told the court he was a ‘teacher’s pet’.
The witness said: ‘We were very close friends, I would say best friends.
‘The perception I had was that he was very much a teacher’s pet.’
He said the complainant he had a ‘very close relationship’ with Franklin.
‘I would say they were flirtatious at times.’
He said that he would often see the two of them holding hands during school trips.
‘They would be sitting together on school trips. He would sit at the front with Ms Franklin holding hands and leading the group.’
He said that during one school trip to France the alleged victim sat at the front of the bus with Franklin.
‘He spent the entire trip at the front with Ms Franklin, not with us as a group.’
Franklin, of Radlett, Herts denies eight counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14
The trial continues.
ENDS
