A teacher who engineered sex with a teenage boy as he studied for his GCSEs was jailed today for four-and-a-half years.
Emily Drury, 26, had engaged in sexual behaviour with the 15-year-old on numerous occasions whilst acting as a private tutor between May and June last year.
A court heard she left him a note saying ‘I enjoy every piece of you’.
She admitted five counts of sexual activity with a child and was jailed after a judge said she had abused her position of trust.
The court heard how following the final incident of sexual activity, they ‘got dressed and Drury whispered “you can’t tell anyone about this”,’ prosecutor Amber Hobson said.
Ms Hobson said the boy had agreed not to but told two of his friends and sent them a picture of Drury which sent ‘rumours running’. Word reached the boy’s school, who contacted police.
Lincoln Crown Court heard when officers spoke to the boy he allowed them to look at his phone, and police found a message from the teacher referring to a note she had left for him alongside £20.
The note, which was examined by police, said: ‘I enjoy every piece of you. I don’t know how to stop, or what this is. Here’s £20 just in case…Your Em xoxo.’
Emily Drury has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting sexual activity with a child
Drury dabbed her eyes in the dock as she listened to a victim impact statement from the boy, read by the prosecutor.
In it the boy said Drury had told him: ‘Since getting married, her and her husband didn’t really talk, they weren’t having sex and marriage wasn’t what she expected.’
He added: ‘She treated me kindly, told me she was obsessed with me.
‘I realised I had been manipulated. I was put into a situation where I was experiencing emotions and situations no child should have to experience.’
Drury was arrested in June last year and admitted the charges at a plea hearing last month.
Defence barrister Jeremy Janes submitted references from Drury’s parents and brother. He said her conduct triggered the loss of what she hoped would be a ‘lifelong career’.
Mr Janes said his client had embarked on a ‘uncharacteristic, fantastical and unreal relationship’ with the boy.
Sentencing Drury, Judge James House KC said her offending was so serious only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He said the abuse would have played on the boy’s mind at a time when he was ‘approaching his GCSEs’.
The judge added: ‘She was in a position of trust. She was the adult, he was the child. This was not simply a single indiscretion – that would have been bad enough.’
Drury, of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, had no previous convictions.
She was supported in court by her husband and other relatives. Mr Drury declined to comment as he left court.
Detective Constable Julie Jode, from Lincolnshire Police, said Dury’s actions were ‘despicable’.
She added: ‘As an adult in a position of authority, she was expected to provide guidance, support, and protection. Instead, she used that position to target and manipulate someone who should have been able to trust her implicitly.
‘The victim in this case was forced to navigate an incredibly difficult and challenging period of his life while also facing the uncertainty of a lengthy criminal justice process. The fact that the offender delayed accepting responsibility only added to that ordeal.’
Drury was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life, and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order to last five years.