Pervert teacher Matthew Bartlett is jailed

Sep 5 2009 By Paul Beard

A PERVERT teacher who had sex with an under-age girl was today starting a four-year jail sentence.

Matthew Bartlett, who snivelled in the dock during the hearing at Warwick Crown Court, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Bartlett, 31, of Peele Drive, Wilnecote, Tamworth, had pleaded guilty to ten charges of sexual activity with a child and one of inciting the 15-year-old girl to carry out a sex act.

Bartlett has been sacked from the North Warwickshire school where he worked.

Mr Neil Banister, prosecuting, said the victim was a vulnerable girl who had mental health issues and was being treated for depression at the time of the offences.

She had become very secretive and began going out on her own or saying she was seeing friends when, in fact, she was meeting Bartlett.

Her mother had found a note saying: “I hate myself. I hate my life. I have been doing something I am ashamed of.”

Mr Banister added: “The sexual contact between them was then regular and often, frequently at his home when his wife was at work or out for the evening.

Matters came to light after West Midlands Police began to investigate a claim by another girl that Bartlett had sent her suggestive texts.

Bartlett, a former law student who had worked as a teacher since 2000, told police he was contemplating leaving his wife for the girl, but denied any sexual activity had taken place.

But the girl had confided in her mother that it had and, after speaking to his wife, who encouraged him to contact the police,,Bartlett confessed to what he had done.

Ben Mills, defending, said there had been no coercion.