A TEACHER from Stalybridge has been handed a suspended jail sentence after ’grooming’ a teenager who had been his pupil into a sexual relationship.
Sam Olsson was working as a maths teacher at Bolton UTC, which closed in 2019, when he started a relationship with the girl.
Bolton Crown Court heard how she had emailed him asking for help with her work, only for him to later contact her through his personal email.
Prosecutor Joe Allman told the court: “And later is when his emails became flirtatious, hinting about going on a date.”
It heard he asked her for nude pictures and she later stayed at his flat – he performed sexual acts on the girl at various points
Mr Allman stated: “He told her they must keep their relationship a secret until she was 18 and then they would tell everyone they had only been dating for a few months.”
The relationship ended when she was 19 but Mr Allman said: “To use her words, he ‘ghosted her’.
“She had, in her own words, been groomed.”
Mr Olsson was arrested in February 2023 but gave no comment to police.
After another arrest two months later, a search of his Stonecliffe Terrace home unearthed evidence of internet searches for pornography, which, though not unlawful, related to schools and schoolgirls.
And the 37-year-old admitted two counts of sexual activity with a girl under 18 by a person in a position of trust four days before has victim was set to give prerecorded evidence ahead of a trial.
In a statement, she said: “Instead of being my teacher and guide, he ultimately ended up being my abuser.”
She added Mr Olsson had “slowly chipped away at my self-esteem” and her work had suffered because of times when she had been afraid to come into class.
Gwen Henshaw, defending, said Mr Olsson deserved credit for his guilty plea.
She added he had ‘matured, developed and changed’ and that he now ‘bitterly regrets his offending.’
While urging caution about the phrase ‘grooming behaviour’ and saying Olsson accepted he would never teach again, she said: “He candidly and readily admits he has made a mess of relationships in his life.”
Judge Kenderick Horne said the relationship had been started ‘because of what I am sure was grooming behaviour on your part.’
He said: “The build-up to this relationship, were it not for the teacher/pupil relationship, looks quite ordinary.”
But he deemed Olsson to have ‘abused’ his ‘position of trust as a teacher’ and had a lasting effect on his victim.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for 20 months, and ordered to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days with 100 hours of unpaid work.
He also sentenced him to a 12-month mental health treatment requirement and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order, which bans Olsson from paid or voluntary employment with a school or educational establishment with children under the age of 18 for 10 years.