Teacher who groomed girl wins partial appeal

Catherine Pearl was jailed for two years and four months in January

A former senior teacher jailed after she groomed a pupil has successfully appealed part of her sentence.

Catherine Pearl, from Abingdon, worked as Didcot Girls' School's deputy head teacher and abused her victim over a period of years.

She admitted two counts of abuse of trust by sexual activity and was jailed for two years and four months at Oxford Crown Court in January.

But Court of Appeal judges quashed and replaced a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) after they found parts of one given to Pearl when she was sentenced were "unnecessary and disproportionate".

Judge Emma Nott had imposed the 10-year SHPO, under which Pearl would have had to tell police if she had any device capable of accessing the internet.

The mother-of-two would also have had to tell authorities if she lived in a household with children.

And she was forbidden from having contact with other children "unless [it was] inadvertent and unavoidable" and they were supervised by a parent or guardian who knew about her convictions.

The appeal judges said they were "very onerous" restrictions.

They said though Pearl abused her victim, she remains banned from contacting her by an indefinite restraining order and that there was "no evidence" she is a risk to other children.

They replaced the previous SHPO with a new one which bans her from seeking or holding any position of authority or care of children. That will last until January 2035, 10 years after she was sentenced.

Despite the changes, they said Pearl's offending was very serious and "had a terrible impact" on the victim.

"The sentencing judge was plainly right in our opinion to take a very serious view of it," Lord Justice Dingemans, Mr Justice Cavanagh and Judge Michael Chambers KC added.