Thank God I was never the prey of the former model who taught me chemistry

Derek E

Indeed.

Reminds of Miss Faversham, who taught me maths, and who use to wear slightly transparent white blouses which, in the right light-

Where was I? Oh yes, thank the Lord she never took me to a series of hotels for carnal activity!

Robert Mitchum

Lucky Derek E and his Miss Faversham. Most of the teachers at my school were more like Miss Haversham.

Rachael

If it's illegal for a man to do such a thing, it's illegal for a woman.

Richard

Ballet!! In Blackpool!!

Nobby

I'm really really glad none of our teachers tried it on with any of us. Just as well because they were all blokes and we were all dedicated homophobes.
(Though there was that business with the metalwork teacher and the boy in 2B....)

Austin Barry

Only Sid James could do the required LOL.

A J Scott

Question: which is more reprehensible - a schoolmistress like this lady, or a paedophile priest?

James Martin

sexy paedo scum.

cuffleyburgers

I too had a narrow escape my maths teacher miss Bell used to wear astonishingly tight trousers round a rather shapely behind, and low cut shirts with nothing underneath I am convinced she fancied me, I think it was my NHS specs that really got her going, but luckily she resisted the temptation

EyeSee

Difficult one. You have to have an age limit and even if the recipient of the attention may be fine with it....

Eddie

Sexual exploitation by women is just as serious as that by men. As it is, the law and society treats it as a joke - showing its misandrist double standards.

Next time I hear about a man adbucting and raping a 15 year old girl, I shall be laughing my head off like Rod Liddle of course... because adults exploiting kids for the sexual kicks is just so damn funny! Ha ha... ha ha... ha ha...

rod liddle

All good points, I reckon. I would draw your attention to the case of Jonathan King, who received seven years in prison for much, much, less.

radgie gadgie

I was once 15 and was, and still am (to the best of my knowledge) heterosexual, and I am certain that if that sort of opportunity had come my way I would have grabbed it (phnar phnar) with both hands. It would be against the law but sometimes there are victimless crimes. If it turns out that the lad was as happy and as grateful as is humanly possible (not an unlikely scenario) her 'crime' such as it was such be dealt with leniently. Lose her job, or move to a girls school, but thats about it.

Herbert Pocket

Is it perhaps the choice of location that constitutes abuse?

Tiberius

The circle that is the difference between the sexes will never be squared, no matter how hard Harman may try to promote the strap-on culture.

Or, to put it another way, one size doesn't fit all, especially in blouses.

Kojak

Eddie,

Your analogy of the abduction and rape of a 15 year old girl is false and you know it. Calm down - it's only a blog.

What is being discussed is some lucky lad having it away with his cute looking teacher.

Bob

A very good friend of mine is still married to the French Assistant who was allocated to our school. I am sure that they both waited until my friend had left school before exchanging body fluids......errr, like Hell.

rod liddle

Slightly with the correspondents who allege that the real abuse was Lancashire.

Eddie; get a grip, son. Just try to see the truth of the situation.

Johnnyboy

I heard old Pobbles was at it left right and centre... She just never fancied you Rod.

TrevorsDen

What do you have to say Mr Liddle about the Guido exposure of the emails from Draper and McIntyre which you were copied into? Are they nice traditional socialist types??

Did you remonstrate or have a good laugh??

Don't tell me it all a fraud ....

Minnie

When I was was schoolgirl the best looking girls in our class spent a whole term actin g provocatively and trying day after day to seduce our physics master. Unfortunately the spoilsport had a nervous breakdown due to all the stress of it and ended up resigning before we achieved out aim.

startledcod

I daily give thanks my vioin teacher, the gorgeous and gorgeously named Miss Bourgouis never tried it on. It would have been too upsetting to tell my mates.

rod liddle

Sorry Trev, run that by me again? I have nothing to do with that boring half wit Guido and have never received any emails from him. What am I supposed to be privy to?

Herbert Thornton

I have read that in one far eastern country the mothers of adolescent boys are actually expected, should they deem it desirable, to apply this educational principle to their own sons.

Beer Moth

Eddie

Tell us would you, just how damaging it would be to the average 15 yr old lad, primed full of the stuff and ready for action - just what a dreadful imposition it would be on him, to be picked out by Miss La Levrette Bouvier, for some special attention in the book cupboard, in that 25 minutes between the last bell, and the clanking mop buckets?

I'll tell you: it wouldn't harm at all. In fact, it would give him a head start to his sexual career. From meccano to fellatio in the space of one magical week.

Felt pretty good to me, and as you can see, I'm perfectly normal.

Dixon

Damn, Ive been trying to remember the name of that pottery teacher, Josephine what was it...all I keep remembering was the marvellous view standing behind her as she reached accross a table rolling clay, wearing those 1970's trousers that were made of a thin nylon and extended tight..tight oh my so tight, all the way to a very high waistband. All I could think as a 15 year old was that it was as good as anything in "Playboy".

...aha, I remember, it was Josephine...no, after what i've written I cannot reveal that now can I!

Anyway, besides the view, I adored her!

Dixon

On the serious issues raised, Eddie etal, please bear this in mind. If BOTH parties are under 16 and BOTH partiesd are cconsenting, under British law, BOTH paryties are placed on the sex-offenders register for life, alongside the worst paedophiles and sex-murderers.

Our legal system is said ( by its ptoponents ) to be the envy of the world.

David Ossitt

Rachael

“If it's illegal for a man to do such a thing, it's illegal for a woman.”

Grow up woman; any healthy fifteen year old youth, would think himself very fortunate.

David Ossitt

Richard

"Ballet!! In Blackpool!!"

Snob.

David Ossitt

A J Scott

“Question: which is more reprehensible - a schoolmistress like this lady, or a paedophile priest?”

Do you really need to ask this question?

The answer is a simple one, the priest for inflicting the pain and the shame of buggery.

For heavens sake A J look at her photograph, she is the stuff of every young mans wet-dreams.

anne allan

Bugger - obviously I went to the wrong school.
Somehow weedy middle aged men with leather patches on their jacket elbows did nothing for me.
Ho hum - my loss.

Minekiller

The lucky, lucky, lucky...bast*rd. And I know how he feels, I was shameless abused by a much older woman so much so I kept going back for more...maybe I had a form of Swedish-Sex-Stockholm Syndrome.

Do certain women, like certain men, like then young. Yep, in equal measure I'd say.

james Murphy

Ah to be fifteen again!

Ulukai

In the linked article it says "Pirie, who is now living in Mamer, Luxembourg"

At this very moment I'm writing this from Mamer, Luxembourg and next thing I'll do is to enroll in her ballet institute. I may be over 15 but hey, you never know...

Carl

I feel for that poor boy, so much so that I volunteer to be a hostage in his place. We must protest and stand firm against this kind of thing.

hadrian

I am thoroughly revolted by the levity exhibited on this thread over such a revolting breach of professional behaviour and good faith. As a retired school teacher I say if someone cannot be trusted with a minor they should be drummed out of the profession at the very least. We had two cases of this sort over the years; in one the culprit was male and the minor female and one of the senior lady teachers ensured her colleague never reoffended by hurling a desk at him when she found out; in another the culprit was a middle aged maiden lady who was given six months suspension having been discovered in flagrante delicto with a 4th year male. That lad went from being a highly promising pupil aspiring to medical school to a volatile mess. If you work with kids you might realise this filthy behaviour is no laughing matter.

Ken Bishop

Astonioshing how many peoople seem to think this is funny. Would they chortle equally if a male teacher used a 15yo girl for sex? Especially the _men_ chortling should be ashamed. You know perfectly well that 15yo boys are still at a vulnerable age. How can you bring yourselves to pretend that they are all mad keen on sex with older women?

Woodbine Willy

My God, what an ordeal! Thankfully I went to school when teachers still looked like the one in this Spectator blog from last year.

Edward McLaughlin

hadrian.

"...in another the culprit was a middle aged maiden lady who was given six months suspension having been discovered in flagrante delicto with a 4th year male."

Look, if she was in that place with a year 9, then a maiden lady she worn't.

And anyhow, how could he afford a fancy Italian restaurant like that?

David Ossitt

Ken Bishop

“How can you bring yourselves to pretend that they are all mad keen on sex with older women?”

Because they are!

Have you forgotten what it was like to be fifteen?

At fifteen; you lived life, with an almost permanent erection.

DeeJay

Hadrian

Its getting late. For the sake of clarity would you mind explaining in more slightly more detail exactly what happened. Its well past the watershed so you can be graphic as you like. Thanks

wildesbeest

Just my sodding luck, I grew up 5 minutes from Mamer in Luxembourg and the only human company that wasn't over 90 and still annoyed with the krauts was a mad Italian kid called Frankie who used to throw stones at me (until the worm turned but that's another story). 15 year old me would have crawled over broken glass to get at the lovely Miss Pirie. Still, she got caught so society must have its pound of flesh.
Meanwhile I could name you, if I was so inclined, at least 5 girls who shagged teachers (and it was that way round - they knew exactly what they were doing and bumfluffed oiks like me didn't stand a chance). They all ended up productive and happy people and one of them even married teach and now keeps him in retired bliss while she is, guess what, teaching. She was way otu of his league too.
It may be legally wrong but it is less morally wrong than plenty of acts that PC Plod would endorse (eg. why can't I walk my dog on Hampstead Heath without encountering knots of men furiously buggering or fellating each other?) In other words, sex and morality is a complicated beast and only a low intellect drone would regard Miss Pirie's crime as morally repugnant as the steretypical boy buggering Roman Catholic Priest's.

Dixon

Hadrian, is this a put on, "irony" again raising its ambiguous head? Or do you really protest...methinks...way too much?

And just what did that thrown desk do that ensured he never did it again!

For pitys sake get a sense of humour.

Paddy

Yes, all those people who think there's no difference between this case and, I dunno, a case in which an adult man enslaves a 12 year old gild are correct...no, wait a minute, they're idiots!

Paddy

Yes, all those people who think there's no difference between this case and, I dunno, a case in which an adult man enslaves a 12 year old gild are correct...no, wait a minute, they're idiots!

Fergus Pickering

Rod, I don't know if you are a reading man, but have you tried Kingsley Amis's 'The Riverside Villas Murders' where the hero, a fourteen-year-old boy, is seduced (very willingly) by a twenty-something neighbour. He is also lusted after by the Chief Constable of the County. How unlike my own home life at the time. However, I must say if our very attractive Biology teacher had made a move in my direction I... would have run a mile from sheer fright. You lot seem to have been very mature fifteen-year-olds or is memory playing tricks? It does when you get on a bit. Also, the woman must be a bit odd, don't you think? Given the way she looks why does she prefer fifteen-year-olds. They have nothing going for them at all, I would have thought, except for the fact that they are children. That would be what turns her on, wouldn't it? If Jon Venables' child porn proves to be thirteen-year-old girls will the shrill people on other threads stop jumping up and down. A thirteen-year-old girl equls a fifteen-year-old boy as far as maturity is concerned. Not that I'm over-bothered by this. Teachers tend to romanticise their charges and think they are more vulnerable etc etc than they actually are and pretty well all sex is filthy stuff if you're doing it right, as Woody Allen nearly said.

James

TrevorsDen,

I think you will find that the person copied into the emails is Roger Liddle.

EC

It happens. It has always happened and probably always will. In the sixties one of the guys in the sixth form, a quiet lad, left home and moved in with the young new drama teacher. In the 80's a guy at the school wife where my wife taught took up with a sixth former, they got got married, had a bunch of kids and lived happily ever after.

Oh , did I miss out the 70's? I'll have to let Martin Bright fill you in on the champion of traditional teaching er .. methods. http://is.gd/a1aGP
or maybe the Indy - http://is.gd/a1bkf

Eddie

Such hypocrisy on display here. The fact that many boys or girls would jump at the chance to have sex does NOT justify it. The book (not the film) The Reader shows how the exploitation of a teenage boy who is exploited by a woman in authority can affect his whole life - not necessarily of course, but it's abuse none the less. Such double standards here! And yes, a boy can get an erection and perform sex when he does not really want to - and he has no idea pf course how his mind is being twisted and attitude to relationships being formed by such abusive exploitation.

All women who want a sex toy or toy boy whore should go and pay for one! Not see teen boys in their classes as perkls of the job. What a disgusting woman this is! A man doing the same - or less (J.King) would be in prison for this and ostracised too. Why is a female sex offender a heroine to so many!? Lots of sad middle aged men with sordid fantasies here, perhaps. But fantasies are just that - and better left as fantasies - that is the point. Grow up, old timers...

If people think an adult woman in authority talking advantage of the power she has over a fit boy she intends to use as a free whore or perhaps a free vibrator (easy meat, hun, missy) is fine, then people should also think an adult man sexually exploiting a young teenage boy or girls is also fine. If that's our opinion - then great. But then, if your own son or daughter was used as a sex toy by some twisted adult, you might not be so happy eh...

By the way, I am no supporter of pasedo-hysteria, and yes, sometimes, such relationships can work BUT that does not mean they are acceptable. Teachers f-ing children is not a good idea really. Call me old-fashioned but...

PS Perhaps I feel like this because I did not attend public school...

Jack Jones

Did she "abduct" him, ie. tie him up and bundle him into the boot of a car? Did she rape the lad, and as reported, repeat these offences over a three month period.

We're given no information from the boy's point of view, who may well have been a willing and eager participant, which puts a different light on the story.

As a once 15-year-old myself, I would have given my right arm to lose my virginity to a sexy teacher, as would just about all my friends.

In which case, now the law is telling the boy that he had "demeaning, illegal, sordid sex". If that's not psychological abuse, I don't know what is.

I'm not condoning what happened, just trying to put it into context.

Sam Smith

Any parent will tell you that a 15-year-old will not do anything they don't want to do.

Arthur

Eddie, no hypocrisy. All we have to do is ask the boy whether the sex was consensual. If it wasn't then there would be a rape charge.

The report says that they were "having sex". I bet the court trial and reported of this case is more far more harmful than the sex itself.

Mrs Mugabe

She looks like a bleedin' hussy. I mean, is this picture of her taken from 'Readers' Wives' or what? Who poses for a picture all pouty of lip and touselled of hair who's not gagging for it. She looks like a teacher alright, but not one you'd expect to find in yer regular high school. Bang her up for a two year stretch in the slammer! That ought to sort her out.

Derek E

Thank you all. This correspondence has been an epiphany for me.

I now realise that Miss Faversham indeed abused me and that she is the reason I never achieved as well as I might have. Especially in maths.

In fact, I have contacted my lawyers and am seeing a Recovered Memory Hypnotherapist who says he can help, but it will be difficult.
Miss Faversham will be hearing from me very soon. I hope she still has light, diaphanous blouse because that will be necessary in evidence.

When I now read my opening post I realise just how violated I was. To be honest, I am surprised to still be here.

You're right, it is not funny.

biggestaspidistra

I'm disappointed to hear the abuse of Lancashire, a randier county you could not hope to find, neither stuck up nor inhibited. And Blackpool, home of the Pepsi Max Big One, a decent breakfast and now ballet.

Mjolnir de Jersiaise

This is absolutely shocking. I am thoroughly disgusted by this disgraceful story. When I think back to when I was an innocent little fifteen year old boy I am extremely upset about what has transpired in this terrible case; In fact I am so upset that I want to run outside, fall to my knees, raise my eyes skyward (whilst beating my breast) and cry out: "WHY COULDN'T THIS HAVE HAPPENED TO ME!"...

Eddie

I agree with Mrs Mugabe (gosh what a sentence that is...)

OK - so let's all allow and have a laugh about any MALE teacher who has sex with a boy or girl of 15 - I am sure they enjoy being 'broken in' by a trusted adult, so what the hell... In fact, let's encourage all teachers to screw their 15 year old pupils - and why stop there? Why not break them in at 13 or 12. Or we could all emulate the Saudis and marry our 9 year old cousins...

Because it is SO MUCH FUN exploiting those who are easily exploited eh, if one is an adult with power who wants some fun!

Jack Jones - I am just putting things in context here, not condoning underage, exploitative sex...

Nice to know you'd be so friendly to me if I had your teenage son or daughter. Hoorah!

Austin Barry

As I am on the cusp of my second childhood, please could you supply Ms Pirie's contact details.

AngloWelshDragon

@TrevorsDen

The Draper emails referred to on Guido were copied to Roger Liddle (of Policy Network) not Rod Liddle.

Edward McLaughlin

Eddie

I now understand your problem: you have believed the idiots who insist that what is good for boys, must be shown to be just the same for girls. It isn't any such thing.

My son when younger, was actively pursued by a woman much older and I do not lie when I say that I was rather pleased for him.

On the other hand, were my daughter to be pestered by a much older man, then I would have serious words. If he persisted, I would have some of his peripheral bones damaged.

There's the difference and it will be here when you and I and totalitarian feminism are dust.

Dixon

Edward McLaughlin: "My son when younger, was actively pursued by a woman much older and I do not lie when I say that I was rather pleased for him."

Even if she had been infected with HIV?

Ive been as flippant as anyone here, but there are serious implications, certainly. I mean, what if your son had had to service a Pat Butcher lookalike in order to pass his GCSE's?

Hhrrrrrrrr ( thats a shivver ).

EC

Dixon,

At last! Someone with a fertile imagination writing plot-lines for Eastenders.

Noa Zrk

Austin Barry
March 9th, 2010 12:41pm

As I am on the cusp of my second childhood, please could you supply Ms Pirie's contact details.

Mr Barry - I'm delighted to see a mature gentleman prepared to willingly accept the challenges and demands that ballet training puts on the human body.

Edward McLaughlin

Dixon

Who's Pat Butcher? What's HIV? Can I have my cocoa now please?

A. MacAulay

Message to Rod Liddle on a completely different subject. In an article about Baroness Gaga of Upholland, the Lord High Representative and her failure to meet Brussels Mediocrity Norms in this weeks, Der Spiegel, your Isle of Sheppey caravan jibe is quoted. Oddly because the Isle of Sheppey is a place no German will ever have heard of, and more oddly you are cited as being an, "Ex-BBC-Mann" as if this was inderstood in Germany to be in itself some sort of recommendation.

Thought you might be interested.

Dixon

EC, ...its just someone last year proposed to pair me off with such a woman!

J P

This post is loathsome - as loathsome as many of the comments. Any adult taking sexual advantage of children is to be condemned.

hadrian

It seems that Eddie and I are about the only ones on here who do not find this in the least bit funny or even sniggersome.
Having taught teenagers I firmly believe it is an INVIOLABLE rule that their very definitely vulnerable emotional development should NOT be messed around with by manipulative adults in position of authority for some passing sordid pleasure. Some kids do mature far more quickly than others but I reckon none of them certainly under the age of sixteen and only a few in the upper school teens are ready for proper relationships. It disgusts me intensely that the most intimate act of commitment should be viewed so cheaply as it obviously is in our coarsened culture. Little wonder we display so little mutual respect in our wider social relationships and so little responsibility.
I recall one of the leading figures in one of the Child Protection agencies saying back in the 80s quite categorically that even if a minor in law was shamelessly trying to insitgate such behaviour the responsible adult had to be inflexibly incorruptible. I totally agree, whether some think this risibly puritanical or not. Corrupting the morals and emotions of youngsters is not some laughing matter. They need absolute assurance of protection- from the most vulnerable to the most brazen.
Incidentally, this does not mean I disapprove of any teacher who may subsequently court a former pupil and then marry them once the former pupil has reached the age of discretion as set by law.

Siôn Jones

I went to an all boys Grammar School, so I am relieved that I escaped the sexual attention of my teachers. However, some of my fellow pupils were not so lucky!

Jimmock

A few commentators here seem to be painted into a corner of political correctness by the following two beliefs: Men are exactly the same as women; and homosexual activity is the same as heterosexual activity.
Ditch these two idiocies and things become clearer. The moral of this hoohah(to quote Kingsley Amis again) is that 'nice things are nicer than nasty things.'

A. MacAulay

Is it really so that what makes a man out of a boy makes a victim out of a girl?

As this is never a meeting of equals and the onus of responsibility must be with the older partner, in this case the teacher. So, no matter how horny the boys may be and willing for sexual experience, it is an abuse of their naivety even if the sex is just what they most want. The boy will not feel the dilemna because getting laid is worth practically any risk. Not so for girls.

Eddie

But surely Edward, you'd like an experienced and gentle man to break in your 15 year old daughter - and son, come to that. In fact, why not all three together?

You could of course look up hypocrisy in the dictionary. Males are females are not the same or indeed equal in instinct BUT that does not mean exploitative abusive adults in positions of power can F young boys and NOT young girls! After all, I'm sure they'd all enjoy it...

Gosh, all you old public school boys eh... Just coz you had fantasies about matron when you were being b-ggered by prefects, you think it's all OK. Weird.

By the way, 15 is too old for Eastenders and the soaps. Being made pregnant by 13 in a caravan in Sheppey by a drunken daddy who's actually a secret muslim is more their kinda plotline...

kiwi

My guess, Hadrian and Eddie, is that you are unmarried and childless — and with next to zero chance of that status ever altering.

Peter from Maidstone

I am not unmarried or childless and it strikes me that although there is plenty to snigger about I agree with those who have stated that there is a real abuse of position in this case, and that this is a real crime, even if the 15 yo boy consented.

Eddie

Kiwi- so you are arguing that anyone who disapproves of an adult woman in a position of authority and power taking sexual advantage of a 15 year old boy (or girl...) must therefore be 'unmarried and childless'. Mmm...

My guess, Kiwi, is that you do not have the intelligence to recognise the massive flaws in your argument.

Good grief...

rod liddle

Mr MacAulay - thanks, what an honour!

skydog

Yes, you had a lucky escape there Rod. Bugger eh? ;o)

Dixon

Begad hasn't this topic been a litmus test for pompous priggs ( pardon my spelling ). Hadrian, "JP" ( wot, hes a magistrate issit ) and some others. Are you all too utterly dim to get it, or so bereft of a sense of humour or indeed a sense of Humanity that you cannot understand the simple reality that there is a divide between ribald fantasy about a situation and how one would approach it in reality!

Its like a number of people in mental wheel-chairs in among a sparring session of intellectual pentathletes. The Liddler is our coach.

Nick

If you're over a certain age, then you belong to a time where there was no kneejerk victimhood and vulnerability wasn't the first thing you thought of when you got up in the morning.

So Eddie, Hadrian (and others), I'm really much more p****d off with your insufferable condescension, your small-minded, humourless and vapid points of view and the way they reflect the mind set of Britain today, than anything the woman and the boy got up to; which, as any non-neurotic person living before Health and Safety and the PC fascists got their teeth into all aspects of our existence, would have had zero impact on the future life of either.

Eddie

So condemning an adult who abuses her position and betrays trust in order to sexually exploit a young teenage boy is political correctness and elf n safety gone mad now, is it, Nick lad? Good grief...

When will some people learn to debate? According to your weird argument Nick, anyone condemning such abusive behaviour by adults who abuse their power is small-minded and humourless. Not at all.

I suggest people do not go out and use 15 year olds as sex toys to prove how open minded and humourous they are though...

Edward McLaughlin

Eddie

'So' the Spectator pages are manned exclusively by those who went to public school are they?

I'm still trying to figure out your arithmetic: a son, a daughter.....that makes three?

Oh, sorry, I'm a bit slow there. You paint a picture of my Son and my Daughter, with a man, having sex together. Quality.

Well, as long as I get global video rights OK?

Old Slaughter

Blooming 'equality', its ruining everything!

Nick

Eddie, listen to yourself:

"sexually exploit a young teenage boy"

"abuse their power"

"use 15 year olds as sex toys"

What planet have you been on? It seems to be obvious to almost everyone but you that your reaction is extreme.

And Eddie, I'm not debating this issue, and neither are you. Where is there room for debate?

You have an entrenched attitude which no end of argument would budge and my contribution serves no purpose other than to condemn your narrowmindedness. Over and out.

C Cole

@ Woodbine Willy

"Thankfully I went to school when teachers still looked like the one in this Spectator blog from last year"

Not the best choice, mate. She's rather foxy as it goes.

A. MacAulay

Perhaps Ms. Pirie will use the now famous, "Polanski Defence" and give the lad a substantial sum and then go and live somewhere with an artisitically minded legal system. France for example.

Minnie Ovens

The thought will keep all boys from 14 to 65 going for the next three months.
No need for porn mags or the Internet during that time, just a vivid imagination

Derek

This thread seems to have almost as popular a theme as abusing Mr. Gordon Brown.

We had an acute shortage of eligible women at my school,an acute shortage of any women at all actually, although the Under Laundry Mistress made up for a lot, but she was unfortunately far from a predator as far as my sources could throw light on the matter at that time. Jon Snow might have had access to the inside skinny, because young and weedy he was occasionally seen hanging around the Headmaster's quarters, though not enrolled in the Senior school.

Rather surprisingly, I see no comment from Verity. I wonder what her take is on this hot topic - torn speechlessly between the opposite pull of her libertarian ideals and her fierce opposition to decadent England, I would guess....I know, it's a hard call.

James Harman Delingpole

@Eddie We're not fooled by your false 'I didn't go to public school' trail. We know you went to St Pauls and that your real name is Harriet.

AngloWelshDragon

I am in agreement with Hadrian and Eddie. As the mother of a 15 year old boy and 18 and 13 year old girls I appreciate there are grey areas and it is possible that a child under 16 would consent to a sexual relationship with an adult.

Decent. responsible adults, however, would never put a child in that position in the first place. To do so would be selfish, manipulative and downright wrong. Please consider that paedophiles often justify their behaviour on the grounds that the child consents (having been groomed so to do ).

Those of you who laugh, where would you draw the line? That a 15 year old consents and therefore the adult should be let off? Or a 14 year old? Well how about a 12 year old? Or a 9 year old?

There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and that line is 16. My son has been driving a Landrover on private property since he was 12. Should an exception be made for him to take his test and drive on the public highway at 15? Should all 15 year olds be able to drive? I don’t think so and I doubt you would either.

Ken Bishop

David Ossitt

Most fifteen-year-old boys are indeed highly sexed. That is not the same as saying they are all desperate for sex with older women. They aren't. And you know it.

lauriemiami

Rod Liddle: Unchallenged master of the tantalizingly baited hook.

hadrian

It may have escaped the attention of the sleaze on this site that zero tolerance of adults interfering with children under their influence and authority- even who imagine some sordid liason will be 'fun' - does NOT mean disgust at such behaviour flows from modern humanistic Political Correctness. Some of us just hold to plain, old fashioned views on sex being for that committed, loving relationship called marriage. We are unaplogetically 'puritanical'.
It also derives from the manifest need to protect children from unscrupulous or unstable adults. To read some of the quite outrageous views on here you'd think all kids into their early teens are fair game for such predation.
As for speculation about the personal circumstances of a contributor to the issue on here, let me suggest resorting to the 'ad hominem' betrays how vacuous is your logic. Children should be nurtured to treat the closest personal relaionship as sacrosanct and not urged on to acts of selfish gratification that in the end breed nothing but cynicism. I repeat- child protection is paramount and the rule is set, let none dare cross that line with impunity.
And just to disappoint you, you have my status all wrong, Kiwi...

steve

Well put, AngloWelshDragon. A 13-year-old at my school was preyed upon by a female teacher, possibly because he was shy and quiet. And the impact of this affected him into adulthood.

John Steadman

I think the sour-puss dissenters have missed the point here - it's a birrafun with a birratruth and I for one am in full sympathy with it. Nice one Rod.

AngloWelshDragon

@ John Steadman

Lets hope its still a "birrafun" when its your child!

wrinkled weasel

I was fondled regularly by a teacher, but it was the Headmaster, and it was a school you had to pay for, so this kind of thing was practically in the school prospectus as an organised activity.

At the time, I thought it was mildly eccentric of him. Now I realise I must be scarred for fecking life. Can I some kind of grant to help me recover and a lot of attention? I am certainly looking forward to a lot of sympathy from some of your commenters about my failure to master algebra, which was almost certainly down to this abuse, as is my subsequent descent into being an utter bastard.

AngloWelshDragon

@ Wrinkled Weasel

Regardless of how you got where you are, I think you are great as you are!

k smith

She could abduct me any day.

John D

If it had happened to either of my sons when they were 15, I would have been after blood!

If it had happened to me, when I was 15, it would have been brilliant.

Paul Eccles

I know our French Exchange Teacher, purely for scientific research purposes, took advantage of the Chemistry Lab assistant in the back of his soft top sports car in 1968 in what was thought, incorrectly, to be a remote corner of the school grounds. One eye-witness, not me , reported that the coupling required her legs to protrude the open window. "Un Homme and Une Femme" was doing the rounds of the cinema at the time and she may have been more vulnerable to his Gallic charms than would otherwise have been the case. However as she bore a more than passing resemblance to Olive Oyl, none of the Lower Sixth felt we were missing out and thereafter were disinclined to help her return the bunsen burners to the store room after lessons. I do not feel I was damaged by this matter although I am currently non-employed, divorced and living on my own!!.

Neil Saunders

Heaven hath no sanctimony like a leftie puritan.