A teacher who sexually abused a 9-year-old boy while working as his private tutor has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of eight counts of gross indecency dating back to the 1990s.
Deborah Franklin, 65, was found guilty of repeatedly abusing the boy between the ages of nine and 12. Franklin was in her 30s and married when the abuse took place. She was working at a preparatory school in Hertfordshire and later became the boy’s private tutor.
Franklin was sentenced on October 1 at St Albans Crown Court. His Honour Judge Choudhry said her actions represented a “profound abuse of trust”.
Prosecutor Gavin Pottinger told the court that Franklin used the position she held and the trust placed in her to repeatedly abuse the child.
The court heard that Franklin’s contact with the boy extended beyond tutoring sessions. She visited his family home and also invited him to her own house.
During one incident at the boy’s home, Franklin removed her clothes and asked him whether he wanted to touch her, the court was told. On another occasion at Franklin’s house, the boy said she tied him to her bed and blindfolded him.
The complainant also described other incidents in which Franklin subjected him to sexual contact. He told the court that on one occasion Franklin called out her husband’s name during the abuse.
The prosecution said the abuse began after Franklin started tutoring the boy privately. The court heard that the boy had no memory of actual schoolwork being carried out during the sessions.
Franklin, of Radlett, Hertfordshire, denied all eight charges. She told the court that she could not remember tutoring the boy and maintained her innocence.
During mitigation, Aisling Byrnes said Franklin had lived an “exemplary life” and continued working as a teacher in the years after the offences. She also told the court that Franklin continued to deny the allegations.
The victim, whose identity has not been made public, described the lasting effect of the abuse in a statement read to the court.
“I have carried the abuse with me throughout my life, it has been a constant shadow,” he said.
“My life has been shaped by what happened to me when I was a nine-year-old boy.”
The case involved abuse that remained hidden for decades before reaching the courts. Franklin’s conviction and sentence followed the evidence presented at trial concerning her relationship with the boy and the repeated abuse that took place while he was still a child.
