A supply teacher has been sent to prison for eight-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting six girls at a North Yorkshire school.
Jonathan Philip Clayton, aged 27, from Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees, was found guilty on all 13 sexual touching charges on 4 February following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.
At the sentencing today (Monday 27 April), Clayton also received an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
The offences were committed between March and May 2019 while Clayton was working as a supply teacher.
The victims, whose anonymity is protected by law, were aged between 7 and 11.
‘A very manipulative individual’
Detective Constable Gillian Gowling, the North Yorkshire Police officer who led the investigation, said:
Jonathan Clayton is a very manipulative individual who used his trusted position as a teacher to touch these very young and vulnerable girls for his own sexual gratification.
She added: “He displayed an extremely worrying pattern of behaviour where he would take advantage of situations that arose at school to put his hands on the victims.
“This was usually when the youngsters were upset and he carried out the abuse under the guise of providing comforting. There were also occasions when he supposedly ‘helped’ the victims to put on or adjust items of clothing, including tights, when they clearly did not require such help.”
DC Gowling described the investigation as “complex and sensitive,” adding: “I hope that the outcome at court will help these very brave girls and their families to move on from this terrible experience, safe in the knowledge that justice has been served against the man responsible and he will never be allowed to teach children again.”