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A 30-year-old PE teacher is on trial at Winchester Crown Court, accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old pupil, even allegedly getting him to call her a sickening, one-word nickname.
Bronwen James, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, denies four counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
Prosecutors say the contact started in class, at Bitterne Park School in Southampton, where James allegedly allowed students to use their phones, and the boy asked to add her on Snapchat.
She is said to have refused at first, then accepted, after which their messages “became flirtatious”.
Edward Culver, prosecuting, told jurors: “This is a case about a teacher who exploited her position as a teacher to engage in sexual activity with one of her students.
“She flirted with him. Exchanged messages with him. Took him to her home. And she had sex with him.”
The court heard they first met up and went to Weston Shore, where they “kissed in the car” as part of what prosecutors describe as a “sexually charged relationship”.
Jurors were told James later picked the teenager up and took him to her house while Wimbledon tennis was on television.
According to the prosecution: “They began watching TV, before kissing and touching each other. She took her clothes off and then he took his clothes off.”
The court heard they had unprotected sex, and that this happened on multiple occasions, allegedly four times in total, while they also messaged each other “daily”.
Prosecutors said James told the boy she “loved him” and “wanted to move away” with him.
The teenager reportedly asked her to give him a one-word nickname and said she liked him to call her “Miss” when they were alone together.
The case reportedly came to light after another student showed a teacher messages between James and the victim.
Prosecutors said the messages “suggested a sexually charged relationship” and that the boy was referred to as “Number 8” in the chats, allegedly as a cover, “being the eighth man or boy she had slept with”.
James was later interviewed under caution and gave a prepared statement denying any sexual relationship with the pupil.
She also claimed she had received messages from an unknown number, which turned out to be the boy, and suggested he was “being put up” to make the allegations by another student.
Culver told the jury the central issue was whether the alleged encounters happened as described or not.
He argued that, whatever her motives, James acted “not only in an unprofessional and overfamiliar way, but failed to recognize any boundaries, exploiting her position to engage in sexual activity with one of her young students”.
The former pupil told the court he thought the relationship was “great” at the time but now believes he had been “groomed”.
James denies all four charges, and the trial continues.
