UK teacher found guilty on 13 counts of sexual assault, victims were girls as young as 7

A supply teacher from Carlton, UK has been found guilty of 13 charges of sexual touching involving young girls. He was previously accused of assault but this was not shown on his record prior to him being hired.

Jonathan Philip Clayton, aged 27, committed these crimes between March and May 2019 while working as a supply teacher in a local school in North Yorkshire. His victims were aged between seven and 11. Clayton had only been at the school for 21 days and in that short space of time assaulted six little girls, some of them several times.

Detective Constable Gillian Gowling, the North Yorkshire Police officer who led the investigation, said that “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.” She added that these assaults usually took place when the young girls were distressed and done under the guise of comforting them.

There were also allegations that Clayton helped his victims put on items of clothing – such as tights – even though the victims did not ask for his assistance.

Notably, this was not the first accusation of sexual assault against Clayton. Similar allegations were made against him in a previous school where he was accused of molesting a pupil under the age of 11, although those charges were subsequently dropped. 

Students at the primary school he worked in before reportedly referred to Clayton as “weird” and “creepy.” 

The spokeswoman for the most recent school Clayton worked in said that he had passed all the statutory checks before joining as a supply teacher and that the previous allegations did not show up on his record. 

Detective Gowling added that “due to the young age of the victims involved, it has been a complex and sensitive investigation” but that she also believes that “justice has been served.”

In addition to the eight-and-a-half year prison sentence, he has also been prohibited from any contact with girls under the age of 18 as well as being placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

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