Female teacher who ‘had sex with pupil, 14,’ says he was a ‘good looking boy’ and admits she ‘fancied’ him

A FEMALE teacher who allegedly had sex with a pupil said he was a good looking boy and admitted she fancied him, a court heard.

Fiona Carrier, 61, taught music at the £6,000-a-term Reading Blue Coat School, in Reading, when she "groomed" the 14-year-old boy.

She invited the teen to her home for one-to-one piano lessons before making him dinner and sleeping with him back in the 90s, it is alleged.

Carrier is now on trial for a string of sexual assault charges against the schoolboy, who is now an adult but still cannot be named.

A jury heard how the former teacher previously admitted a similar charge on the same boy which she described as a “fumble on the sofa”.

Giving evidence at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, Carrier said she does "not remember how or why" it happened but that it was shortly after her husband left her.

Carrier told jurors the boy had been staying over at her home one night when the first incident happened.

She said: “I went in with a glass of water and bedding.

"He said to me ‘you look really sad’, and I said ‘I am sad, it’s a tough old time’.

"Then he mentioned my necklace – he said ‘you always wear that necklace’ and I said it’s one I like.

"Completely out of the blue, he pulled the necklace forward and kissed me."

Despite inviting the boy to stay at her cottage, Carrier said she "didn't see [the kiss] coming".

She added: "Call me an absolute idiot but I didn’t see that coming.

"I have taught hundreds of teenage boys but I didn’t see this coming.”

In the morning, she told one of the boy's friends, who had also stayed over, what had happened.

She said: “The friend was angry, saying ‘how could he do that, I’m going to say something’.

"I was pretty shaken by it. I didn’t want him to say anything.

"He could have gone and thumped him or something so I didn’t want him to get involved.”

The jury was told that on another night, a second incident happened where the pair engaged in sexual activity.

Carrier said: “I didn’t really know in what context but I do know where it happened, on the settee in my lounge.

"I do not remember how or why. I have racked my brain for decades about this and have been mortified and horrified, thinking, how, how, how did anything happen. How?

"I have just never been able to forgive myself. I can’t explain what happened but it crossed the line.

“I was very aware that he could be boasting to his friends [about the kiss] and that if this came out I could lose my job, I could lose everything.

"I was barely managing as it was.

“I remember him coming over earlier than some of the others. I was just trying to talk about it.

“It was a quick fumble, just touching, clothes were not removed or anything."

Somebody being a certain age doesn’t stop you noticing that he’s a good looking boy

Fiona Carrier

The teacher said in the moments afterwards, the victim had a shower and she put his T-shirt in the wash.

She said that the next day, one of his friends asked why the T-shirt was on the radiator and both her and the victim lied – saying something had been spilled on it.

On another day, Carrier picked the boy up from the train station to talk about what had happened.

She said: “We were in a cauldron, a melting pot of emotion.

"It was scary, I had come to pick him up and I said look ‘this absolutely cannot happen. I am in such a bad place, nothing more can happen.'

“He said ‘no it’s cool’ and I said 'oh man, I know you think of this as a game. It’s awful, it’s not a game'.”

She also told how the pair would have chats over the phone in the evenings which she claimed "was all on his terms".

Jack Talbot, defending, asked her: “Did you not think to yourself: ‘I’m the teacher, he’s a pupil’?”

She replied: “Looking back in hindsight, absolutely.

"Looking back I should have had alarm bells but I didn’t for whatever reason.

"It’s absolutely haunted me ever since.

"I pray for him a lot, I’ve never been able to forgive myself. It’s made me ill.

“God can forgive anybody, but I can’t forgive myself.

“Somebody being a certain age doesn’t stop you noticing that he’s a good looking boy.

"Objectively he was, it doesn’t stop me fancying him. Anyone can tell if somebody is a good looking person.”

Prosecutor James Keeley asked: “This is how you’re describing a 14-year-old boy in your care.”

Carrier added: “Yes but it means nothing.”

The trial continues.