Teacher jailed for hotel rape attack on girl,12

Simon Murch asked his victim if she wanted him to be her "sugar daddy"

A former primary school teacher who raped a 12-year-old girl after meeting her online has been jailed.

Simon Murch, 55, attacked his victim at a hotel in Stoke-on-Trent in June 2023 having driven from his home in Sheffield to meet her.

He later gave her £500 and took her to a toy shop, where she was stopped from purchasing an age-restricted video game.

Murch, from Sheffield, was jailed for seven and a half years after he pleaded guilty to rape at a hearing in September.

Stoke Crown Court heard that prior to the attack Murch had been talking to adult women online after difficulties in his marriage and had met up with some of them for sex.

In the course of this activity he met his victim, who told him she was 18, on the internet and he exchanged indecent images with her, as well as asking her if she wanted him to be her "sugar daddy".

The court heard that on 24 June he drove to Stoke to meet her, but left her in his car while he checked into a hotel, where he later raped her.

After the attack, Murch continued to communicate with his victim online, offering to buy her a phone and take her shopping for lingerie.

The court heard his offending only came to light when the girl relayed the "sugar daddy" comment to a member of staff at her school.

Murch was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court

Passing sentence, Judge Graeme Smith said although Murch would not have known his victim was a child before meeting her "it would have been plain to you when you met her that she was significantly younger than 18".

He added: "But, rather than cancelling the plans you'd made and returning to Sheffield, you simply carried on regardless.

"As a teacher, who would have been subject to safeguarding training, you should have been particularly alert to the risks."

The court heard the victim's family had been "ripped apart" by stress and that she had suffered from anxiety and bullying at school.

The court also heard Murch's wife was divorcing him and he had lost his job at Monteney Primary School in Sheffield as a result of his crime.

Speaking in September Steel City Schools Partnership, which runs Monteney Primary School, said: "We can confirm that this matter does not relate to any child, past or present, within Monteney Primary or Steel City Schools Partnership."

Murch was told he would spend an additional year on licence following his release from prison and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

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