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Jail for West Yorkshire internet pervert teacher
A teacher who tricked former pupils into performing sex acts on the internet by posing as his own fictional niece has been jailed for 18 months.
Stephen Grant, 31, a former Mirfield town councillor and religious studies teacher, admitted his crimes in a confession box and was told by a priest to give himself up.
He pleaded guilty to eight offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity by a person in a position of trust.
Grant was yesterday jailed for 18 months for each offence to run concurrently and ordering sign the sexual offenders' register.
Judge Peter Collier, the Recorder of Leeds, said: "You were in a position of trust and you misled and betrayed the very victims you were supposed to protect."
He said Grant's crimes were made worse by the fact that he targeted six different boys – aged between 14 and 17 – and persisted in his actions of 18 months, even trying to contact some of them online after they blocked his messages.
The boys lost confidence and trust in adults, the judge added.
"The mitigating circumstances are few," the judge said. "The absence of
coercion is the only one I have been able to identify. You were a teacher with a good rapport with your pupils. You were respected by friends and colleagues."
The judge said he accepted Grant's remorse was genuine, however his problems and his obsession with male private parts could have been indulged in other ways "without involving these young boys."
Leeds Crown Court had heard how Grant, of Northway Gardens, Mirfield, befriended former GCSE pupils and told them he had a niece who was looking for a boyfriend.
He contacted them in a chatroom posing as an 19-year-old girl called Shaz and exchanged sexually explicit messages.
He also persuaded his victims to send him pictures of their private parts or engage in sex acts in front of a live webcam.
The offences took place between December 2007 and July 2008.
As well as his 18 month jail sentence, Grant will be banned from working with children for 10 years.
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