Music teacher pleads guilty to lesbian affair with pupil, 15
A lesbian music teacher at a private London school has pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a child.
Helen Goddard, 26, of Greenwich, south-east London, pleaded guilty to the five-month affair at Southwark crown court yesterday.
She was told she will have to sign the sex offenders’ register and may face up to 14 years in jail.
The pupil in question has reportedly said she intends to continue the relationship once she reaches the age of 16 in a few months. Her parents are understood to be supportive of her wishes.
Goddard, a former child prodigy who played the trumpet at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, taught the instrument to students at City of London School for Girls. She struck up a friendship with the 15-year-old, who she had known for three years.
They began meeting in private when their relationship became sexual but rumours of the affair reached the school’s headteacher, who called the police. Goddard was arrested in July during a police raid and bailed. Her mobile phone was confiscated as evidence.
Parents at the £13,000-a-year City of London school were given the news in a text message, while headteacher Diana Vernon wrote on the school’s website that staff had reported the matter to police.
Police first said she was arrested for ‘sexual assault’, but then changed this to ‘sexual activity with a child’.
Yesterday, Judge Anthony Pitts warned Goddard a custodial sentence was a possibility, adding that they were “obviously serious charges”.
She is due to be sentenced on September 21st.
