Teacher jailed for sex with pupils

A music teacher who had drink-fuelled sex sessions with two teenage pupils at her home has been jailed for 30 months.

Married mother-of-three Jennifer Philp-Parsons, 45, flirted and plied the 16-year-olds with alcohol at parties she hosted at her house before having sex with them.

Exeter Crown Court heard she seduced the first boy on a sofa bed in the lounge while her husband slept upstairs at their home in Exmouth, Devon.

Weeks later, the teacher threw a second party - this time while her husband was away - and had sex with the first boy in her marital bed. An hour later - when the first boy had gone to a shop to buy food with money Philp-Parsons had given him - she seduced the second boy and had sex with him as well.

The first boy returned to the house and heard his teacher and his friend upstairs engaged in intercourse. The mornings after both parties, Philp-Parsons took the boys for breakfast, the court was told.

At a previous hearing, Philp-Parsons, who was head of music at a Devon school, admitted three charges of sexual activity with a male aged 13 to 17 while in a position of trust in May and June this year. Philp-Parsons was also placed on the sex offenders' register and made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, both indefinitely.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC, The Recorder of Exeter, said Philp-Parsons's offending was so serious that prison was the only option.

The judge said: "You have committed very serious sexual offences with two 16-year-olds who were at the school in which you were a teacher. The details reveal very serious offences involving you seducing two students of your own school in your own home for your own sexual gratification.

"On the first occasion, you plied them with drink while your husband was upstairs. On the second, you had sexual intercourse with both boys in a short space of time. These circumstances were sordid and adulterous. Quite what effects they have had upon these two boys is hard to predict."

A spokesman for the school said: "The head of music was suspended immediately these allegations came to light. The governors of the school moved swiftly to take disciplinary action and she has now been dismissed."