Teacher jailed for sex with schoolboy a 'cold, calculating predator', say police

Judith Evans was jailed for two years at Belfast Crown Court yesterday for a series of sexual offences against a schoolboy and placed on the sex offender register for life.

The court heard that when Judith Evans was confronted with her crimes by police, she had falsely claimed that her teenage victim had threatened and raped her.

Judge Patricia Smyth said there had been close to 10,000 text messages exchanged between the teacher and pupil.

The judge said the teacher had basked in her victim's "adolescent attraction towards her".

Evans, 33, from Elmwood Grove in Newtownabbey, was a teacher at Belfast Boys' Model School when the offences occurred.

Following sentencing, PSNI detective chief inspector Jill Duffie said: "Evans is a cold, calculating child predator who was in a position of trust and abused that position by taking advantage of a young boy who was her pupil at the time.

"She preyed on his vulnerabilities and built an inappropriate friendship with the boy before then further grooming him and sexually exploiting him.

"The messages exchanged between her and her underage pupil were highly sexual and nothing short of sickening."

Evans had initially denied the charges but the mother-of-two later pleaded guilty to a total of eight sexual offences committed against the teenage boy.

The charges she admitted include sexual communication with a child, meeting a child following sexual grooming, sexual activity with a child involving penetration and possessing indecent images of the schoolboy. These offences were committed between March 1 and May 17, 2024 .

She further admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Judge Smyth told the court Evan had groomed the child who was vulnerable because of family circumstances.

After giving him her email address and mobile phone number text communications followed.

The judge said: "From an early stage they contained inappropriate sexual suggestions."

She told the court that during the Easter holidays in 2024 the communications escalated to sexual photos being sent to the boy.

She added: "Within a matter of weeks the defendant was inviting the victim to meet her.

"The defendant met the victim on two occasions outside school where sexual activity occurred."

She said on a third occasion the boy would not get into a car with Evans because it did not have blacked out windows.

The judge said there were references within text exchanges to sexual contact at school, but said this had not been proven.

After the schoolboy's girlfriend found a text message on his phone, he admitted that he had cheated on her and said he wanted to run away and kill himself because he knew police would be involved.

The court was told his father took him to hospital where he disclosed the sexual activity with his teacher.

When interviewed by police, Evans claimed the boy had threatened and raped her.

The judge said: "Every aspect of that account was false."

Evans was sentenced to four years, with half of the term to be spent in custody.

A spokesperson for Belfast Boys’ Model School said: “Following today’s sentencing, we recognise what a difficult and distressing time this has been for the young person and their family and our sincere thoughts go out to them.

“We fully understand the impact that this has caused throughout the wider school community and would reassure all pupils and staff that the protection, safety and wellbeing of our pupils continues to be our highest priority.

“We have robust safeguarding processes in place and, where concerns are raised, appropriate action is taken in conjunction with the relevant authorities.”